The Korean writer Sohn Won-pyung moves like a fish in water in the minefield of emotions. Subtle and deeply delicate, her gaze captures them on the fly, beyond borders, beyond ages. The success that ‘Almendra’ continues to have … among the young public in our country, years after its publication, it confirms that the language in which she speaks is universal and, also, how difficult it is for ordinary mortals to understand it.
Won-pyung managed to release ‘Almendra’ in South Korea for the first time in 2017, after many failed attempts with other novels. «In my country, you need to win a contest to publish a book. I failed to do so on several previous occasions. I remember one day at night I was walking home from the cafeteria where I was writing ‘Almendra’ and I thought: ‘This story is pretty good, but I don’t know if anyone can read it.’ However, in the end, it became my literary debut. And in a true phenomenon published in more than twenty countries that has become the best-selling Korean novel in Spain. “This is what surprises me the most,” he confesses. Thanks to him I am here to see the Spanish readers.
The author visits our country precisely because her publisher, Temas de hoy, has published a new illustrated edition of the ‘best-seller’. Gema Vadillo’s drawings, which are also present in Europe and Korea, revitalize in a youthful way the story of Yunjae, a sixteen-year-old boy who suffers from alexithymia, which prevents him from identifying emotions and expressing his own. Labeled strange wherever he goes, his grandmother and his mother try to teach him to unravel them through ‘post it’ that remind you when to smile and when to say thank you. But it will be an unexpected path that leads him to understand her true dimension.
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Won-pyung has been asked endlessly why he thinks this story connects so much, especially among young people, from Spain to Korea. For her it is still a surprise, but after meditating on it she points out: «This book makes us reflect on emotions themselves. We don’t usually think about them because we just feel them, which means that we do not treat them correctly. That problem generates many more for us, like when we have to be more logical we are more emotional and when we have to be more emotional we are more logical. In the age of social media, where displaying happiness is more important than expressing true feelings, Yunjae’s story resonates as a missing link, thread to pull to retrace the path and try to understand what has brought us here.
The fact that their messages are published in book format reinforces that message. And, furthermore, it has a special merit for Won-pyung, who is also a film director. «The real problem today is that many teenagers don’t read books. Therefore, I am very happy to hear that you like this one and that it is reading a lot in high schoolswhere they also work on it with different activities.
Cover of ‘Almendra’ with its author
Isabel Permuy
Temas de hoy published his latest novel last year, ‘Momentum’ in which he plans the other evil that threatens young people, suicide. «I started writing it after reading a comment from someone online who said that she was very desperate and that she wanted someone to recommend a book or a movie that was about a failed person who eventually achieves success. No one responded to that comment and, seeing it, I thought I would write a story about it. Her protagonist complies and shows how, with a few small changes, she manages to carve out a second opportunity. «At first he fails at everything. Even in his attempt to commit suicide. But, after all that despair, he achieves vital success, not economic or professional success. The impulse is the force that leads you to change », he summarizes.
According to the author, books are key precisely when they portray the human condition: «We have many means of expressing ourselves, but the only thing that can express what it feels like inside way of thinking it’s a book. Movies or videos do this through facial expressions, actions or behaviors. However, the only method by which we can narrate what we feel inside us is writing. That is why the novel is important. Reading novels is very important.
Hence, despite the fact that as a filmmaker he has been asked on countless occasions when a ‘Almendra’ film will be made, he has always answered that he needs more time, although he has had succulent offers. “Them I have told everyone no. I would like this story to remain a book for one more season. When something becomes an image, it stays in our heads. I prefer that each reader, when reading ‘Almendra’, creates an idea in their head so that the book stays in the heart. I can’t say that she is going to stay like this forever, but she will for a long time.
