The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Myeong-kwan, Cheon. Whale. Archipelago Books, 2023.

Cheon Myeong-kwan’s third-person omniscient novel, Whale, is a winding epic that follows the lives of multiple generations across the twentieth century. At the outset of the narrative, when the train was built near Pyeongdae, an old crone sold food out of her home. She swore that she would use the money she saved to exact revenge on the world. When she was younger, she worked for a wealthy family and had an affair with their son. When the mistress discovered their sexual relationship, she had the old crone beaten. The old crone drowned the son but discovered she was pregnant shortly after. She detested the child and after stabbing her eye, sold her to a beekeeper for two jars of honey. Twenty years later, the one-eyed woman returned to take her mother’s money. When she struggled to look under the old crone’s mat, she shoved her mother and killed her.

Elsewhere, Geumbok was a young girl who wanted to leave the small mountain town where she grew up. She spoke with the fishmonger who gave her a ride to the harbor city. Geumbok began working with the fishmonger during the day and sleeping with him at night. She expanded his business by drying fish, and they created a small empire. However, when Geumbok saw Geokjeong, a dockworker, she fell in love and left the fishmonger. She wanted to be with her new lover, but he was not financially astute. When he was injured in an accident at the dock, Geumbok had to caretake for him. She worked menial jobs until she met the man with the scar. He was a notorious gangster who paid for Geumbok to watch movies and sent food to her house. When she needed money, she slept with him. The man with the scar was in love with her and asked her to move into his house with Geokjeong. A year later, Geumbok was convinced that the man with the scar killed Geokjeong and stabbed him with a harpoon. Shortly after, she left the harbor city and wandered the country.

Four years later, Geombok gave birth to Geokjeong’s child, Chunhui. She lived with the twins, who owned a bar and an elephant. When she began having dreams about her dead lovers, she moved to Pyeongdae and opened a successful café. One evening, during a heavy rain, the roof gave in. Rainwater and paper money tumbled through the ceiling. Geumbok found the deed to land in Nambaran and asked her customer, Mun to take her to see the property. She decided to build a brickyard on the site and began pouring money into the project. Meanwhile, Chunhui continued to grow up and spend time with the elephant, Jumbo. They had nonverbal conversations about love, death, and friendship. Geumbok continued her quest for material success and built a theater shaped like a whale. After the theater opened, Geumbok dropped a lighter in the crowded cinema and set the building on fire, killing hundreds of people including herself. Chunhui was arrested for arson.

In prison, Chunhui faced brutal torture and dehumanizing conditions. Her imprisonment ended when the general expunged the inmates’ convictions, and she was released. No one came to greet her when she was let out and she walked back to Pyeongdae. The city was abandoned but she began living in the brickyard, scavenging and hunting to survive. Later, she rebuilt the kilns and started firing bricks again. When a truck driver came to Nambaran, he took the bricks to sell in the outside world and returned with food. They began a relationship, but the truck driver left when he saw that Chunhui was pregnant. She gave birth to her baby alone, waiting for her lover to return. However, when the baby was sick, Chunhui set out into the valley to find the one-eyed woman and fell asleep in the snow. When she woke, the baby was dead. In the following years, she continued to survive and make bricks. When she died, Jumbo visited her, and they flew away from the earth together.