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Familiar Things

Familiar Things

Author(s): Hwang Sok-yong

Location(s): South Korea

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): Contemporary

Seoul. On the outskirts of South Korea’s glittering metropolis is a place few people know about: a vast landfill site called Flower Island. Home to those driven from the city by poverty, is it here that 14-year-old Bugeye and his mother arrive, following his father s internment in a government re-education camp .

Living in a shack and supporting himself by weeding recyclables out of the refuse, at first Bugeye s life on Flower Island is hard. But then one night he notices mysterious lights around the landfill. And when the ancient spirits that still inhabit the island s landscape reveal themselves to him, Bugeye’s luck begins to change but can it last?

Vibrant and enchanting, Familiar Things depicts a society on the edge of dizzying economic and social change, and is a haunting reminder to us all to be careful of what we throw away.

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