The Old Garden

A tragic love story as two parallel lives. Set against the backdrop of the end of the Cold War & South Korea's political revolution of the eighties, The Old Garden is a tale of faith — to one's ideals, & in one's heart.

In the company of her diaries, he relives & reviews his life, trying to find meaning in the revolutionary struggle that consumed their youth—a youth of great energy & optimism, victim to implacable history. Hyun Woo weighs the worth of his own life, spent in prison, & that of the strong-willed artist Yoon Hee, whose involvement in rebel groups took her to Berlin & the fall of the wall.

With great poignancy, Hwang Sok-yong grapples with the immortal questions—the endurance of love, the price of a commitment to causes—while depicting a generation that sacrificed youth, liberty, & often life, for the dream of a better tomorrow.

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HWANG SOK-YONG is one of the contemporary masters of Korean literature. His work, which grapples with the troubled history of his divided country, has resulted in his imprisonment, his exile, & the rare achievement of a wide international readership. Hwang’s novels in English include The Old Garden, a tragic love story set against the backdrop of the end of the Cold War & South Korea's political revolution of the 80s; The Guest, based on the true account of a violent clash between Communist & Christian neighbors in a Korean village town; & The Shadow of Arms, inspired by his experience as a Korean soldier in the Vietnam War.