Sokcho

The novel takes place in Sokcho, a seaside resort city in South Korea near the border with North Korea. It is a tourist town, but the narrator tells Kerrand, “There wasn't much to do in the winter” (7). Later, she becomes annoyed when Kerrand compares Normandy to Sokcho, thinking to herself, "He'd never understand what Sokcho was like. You had to be born here, live through the winters. The smells, the octopus. The isolation" (19). Sokcho is the narrator's hometown, where she has returned after attending university in Seoul. The narrator takes Kerrand to various locales around town, including the Seoraksan nature reserve, the fish market, and a museum. Despite the fact that the narrator was born and raised in Sokcho and left only to attend school, she feels discomfort and insecurity about her Korean identity multiple times when people around the city speak to her in English. She assumes...