shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024

SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE

International Booker–nominated virtuoso Hwang Sok-yong is back with another powerful story — an epic, multi-generational tale that threads together a century of Korean history.

Centred on three generations of a family of rail workers and a laid-off factory worker staging a high-altitude sit-in, Mater 2-10 vividly portrays the lives of ordinary Koreans, starting from the Japanese colonial era, continuing through Liberation, and right up to the twenty-first century. It is at once a gripping account that captures a nation’s longing to be free from oppression, a lyrical folktale that manages to reflect the realities of modern industrial work, and a culmination of Hwang’s career — a masterpiece thirty years in the making.

A true voice of a generation, Hwang shows again why he is unmatched when it comes to depicting the struggles of a divided nation and bringing to life the trials and tribulations of the Korean people.