Briefly Noted Book Reviews

"Dilara, the protagonist of this début novel, is consumed by the absence of a stable home in her life. She and her family flee Turkey, where she is from, after a failed coup in 2016. When they end up in Italy, something inexplicable happens: Dilara's bathroom transforms into a cell in an infamous prison on the outskirts of Istanbul."

"In this novel of remembrance and personal discovery, a Korean woman adopted and raised by French parents returns to Seoul with a documentarian in order to excavate her buried past. Complicating the woman's journey through her homeland is her newly discovered pregnancy. As she and the documentarian revisit the locales of her fractured childhood, she meditates on the future of her baby and on her own upbringing."

"Orhan produces a haunting meditation on memory and displacement that reconsiders the meaning of liberation. Haejin's prose is soft and mysterious, with a drifting, almost Sebaldian quality. Often, she delves into the history of Korean place-names and terms—tangents that provide some of the novel's most touching passages."

The Renovation follows Dilara, who flees Turkey after a failed 2016 coup and settles in Italy, where her bathroom mysteriously transforms into a prison cell from Istanbul. Accustomed to surreal circumstances from living under political instability, Dilara becomes drawn to this impossible space where time and space collapse. The novel meditates on memory and displacement while reconsidering liberation's meaning. Simple Heart features a Korean woman adopted by French parents who returns to Seoul with a documentarian to uncover her past while pregnant. As she revisits childhood locations, she reflects on her upbringing and her child's future. Haejin's prose carries a soft, mysterious quality reminiscent of Sebald, with historical tangents about Korean place-names providing emotional depth.

Read at The New Yorker