About the book
This novel is a first-person narrative in which the main character, who has had to live most of his life constantly taking on new names (which partly explains the title of the book “The Nameless”), takes the reader through the unfortunate circumstances that forced him to become a hitman. It all began because of the protagonist’s father, who used his teenage son as collateral to borrow money from a loan shark known as Jae. Having defaulted on his debt, the father was forced to surrender his son to Jae, who took the little boy under his care. Jae told the protagonist he would need to pay back the money owed by his father, promising to let him “free” once the balance reached “0”. In order to reimburse the debt, the protagonist was given different assignments so he could earn himself commission money. As a little boy, he was first tasked with sitting down and counting the heads of passersby in front of Jae’s office building all day. Next, he was asked to track down and locate specific individuals referred to as “targets,” people who borrowed money from Jae using their own life insurance as collateral. Once the protagonist became old enough in the eyes of his boss, he was finally entrusted with the disposal of said targets. He took on the dirty job of killing them and getting rid of any evidence so that the authorities would classify each case as a disappearance rather than suicide or murder, a tactic meant to extract the most from insurance companies.
The protagonist’s debt on the verge of reaching “0”, freedom seemed to be at his fingertips. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be his last mission ends in failure, and he must now redeem himself in the eyes of his boss. Jae accepts to give the protagonist a final chance, and orders him to dispose of targets in a far and closed off abandoned area known as “Sector B”, where humans are rumored to have turned into cannibalistic demons following the blasts of devastating chemical explosions that turned the city into hell on Earth some years prior. Along his dangerous journey, the main character comes to the shocking discovery that he is next on Jae’s hit list, and that his only way to survive is to kill his own boss. Survival and freedom being two separate matters, getting rid of Jae will prove to be of little use in escaping from his slave-like existence as a hitman, as he merely becomes someone else’s pawn. Unwilling to keep on living this way, the protagonist escapes back to Sector B, where an unexpected series of events leads to a surprising twist. He ultimately chooses to live a new life as a “nameless”.
About the author
Park Young is a burgeoning fiction author whose works are beginning to garner attention in South Korea. Her literary career took off in 2015 after her short story “Hey, Mister!” was awarded the first prize in the annual Kyeongin Ilbo literary contest, and she has since published three novels, all of which have yet to be translated. The prolific young author’s first novel, entitled A Book on Comfort, was awarded the Hwangsanbeol Award for Young Adult Literature in 2017. Park’s second novel Breath of Defiance came out in 2018, and her third novel which serves as the object of this book proposal, The Nameless, was published late last year. All of her books have been well received by both literary critics and casual readers alike. She says she is currently working on her fourth novel.
Media Response/Awards Received
This novel will appeal to a wide readership as it deals with issues stemming from the money-driven, impersonal and mega-urban societies of our modern age. Since the story doesn’t unfold in a uniquely Korean sociocultural context, readers unfamiliar with Korea will have no trouble immersing themselves in Park’s gruesomely chilling universe. Also, readers who enjoy the works of Kim Un-su and Pyun Hye-young will definitely be happy to be introduced to this new author, as certain elements in The Nameless are vaguely reminiscent of the imaginary worlds depicted in Kim’s The Plotters and Pyun’s City of Ash and Red. Lee Dahye, an established and well-known author in Korea, said the following about the book, “I recognized myself in the characters, who can only concern themselves with their own survival inside a world constantly spiraling downward, and I fell in love with the energy flowing from the calamity and ruin in Park’s writing.”
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