Profound narrative, unfiltered prose, burning thematic consciousness…

The beginning and return of the Choi Jin-young universe.

Wondo—who is Wondo? Once a child who longed for his mother's affection and was filled with curiosity, now an "adult who is ready end his own life." A man wandering the streets dragging along his sickly frame, rolling around in a desolate place like a black plastic bag of trash. Wondo wonders- "Bankrupt, criminal, fugitive, abandoned by family, vomiting blood every day, yet still alive. How am I still alive?" In a decisive moment, Wondo seeks to uncover the moment that changed everything, the moment that ruined his life. What happened to him? What choices did he make?

Should the story start from the year he turned six, when his father died after drinking water, his last words being "trust your father" and the subsequent arrival of another father? This other father wielded violence under the guise of discipline, while his mother, absent due to volunteer work, showered love on anyone but Wondo. He felt guilty, thanks to his mother, who only shed tears in front of him. Was it because of Min-seok, the boy from the orphanage who always competed with him for love from the grown-ups? Or was it because of Yoo-kyung, his college girlfriend who constantly compared him to other men? Was it wrong to join the bank that greedily bankrupted numerous people? After painfully digging through the depths of memory, Wondo finally arrives at the doorstep of a colossal secret. What truth does he truly confront?

This novel encapsulates the poignant journey of a man searching for the moment his life went wrong from within the vastness of his memories. Amidst unavoidable stench and venom, he draws a record of a human's struggle, gradually turning into a monster, unable to find footing. His fragmented and squashed memories are likened to "a fist suddenly punching through a wall," and "inside it, there might be flower petals, severed tongues, burst eyeballs, diamonds— entirely unpredictable." Fundamentally, however, human life is seen as "a hole bereft of a beginning and end," and "through that hole, all life pours out," eventually disappearing, as shown through Wondo. When he sobs alone in a dark inn room, readers may find themselves to be Wondo. The question of why I do not die was another expression of his desire to not die. We must live our lives constantly peering into an irreplaceable hole, the writer suggests.

The author entrusts Wondo's desperate questions to the reader. To survive without dying, one must remember and choose. “Why live?”— this is not Wondo's question, nor is “Why didn't you die?” but rather "Who are you? You, the one asking this question."

Wondo can be seen as the pinnacle of Choi Jin-young's early style of writing with its profound narrative, sharp prose, and penetrating insight into the themes of humanity and salvation. The fact that this fully revised edition has been released despite 11 years of rapidly dwindling publishing market is both welcome and impressive. The consciousness of the issue has not aged, and the novelistic innocence shines through even brighter. The resolute return of the author, who has continuously pushed through with her artistic pursuit without hesitation, remembering and recounting human life through novels, is undeniably admirable.

To rise, one must first sit down. To walk, one must first stop. If you want to be together, you must first be alone. To survive without dying, one must remember. How one has lived. Remember and choose. It cannot be postponed. It cannot be refused. Wondo rises off the floor. - Excerpt from the text

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