At Dusk

In the evening of his life, a wealthy man begins to wonder if he might have missed the point.
In the evening of his life, a wealthy man begins to wonder if he might have missed the point.
Parl Minwoo is a success story. Born into poverty in a miserable neighbourhood of Seoul, he has ridden the wave of development in his country. Now the director of a large architectural firm, his hard work and ambition have brought him triumph and satisfaction. But that all begins to change when he receives a message from a childhood friend he once loved. As memories return unbidden, he recalls a world he thought he had left behind - a world he now realises that he has helped to destroy.
'At Dusk is a small but powerful novel from one of South Korea's most esteemed novelists ... The questions At Dusk raises are timeless, and perfect for more serious book-group discussions.'
-Annie Condon, Readings
'Having been imprisoned for political reasons, Hwang has a restrained, delicate touch, alive to the nuances of memory, the slipperiness of the past, and the difficult choices life forces us to make ... Subtly political, deeply humane, a story about home, loss, and the cost of a country's advancement.' STARRED REVIEW
-Kirkus
'Hwang Sok-yong's At Dusk is a perfect slice of Koreana ... shows the underbelly of a nation through the life of characters inhabiting society's bottom rung ... Sok-yong proves once again that fiction can be the best way to tell devastating truths.'
-Gabino Iglesias, NPR