Kwon Yeon Sun

Books

Lemon

Translated by Janet Hong
“In 2002, my sister was murdered. Like someone who doesn’t realize spring is over, I didn’t know I’d lost myself. Lemon, lemon, lemon, my revenge has finally begun.”

In the summer of the 2002, when Korea is abuzz with the Korea-Japan FIFA World Cup, a beautiful nineteen-year-old girl named Hae-on is murdered in what would become known as the High School Beauty Murder. The novel begins with a scene in which Hae-on’s younger sister, Da-on, imagines a detective interrogating Han Manu, one of the suspects of the murder. There is one more suspect: Shin Jeongjun, whose car Hae-on was last seen in. However, Shin’s alibi is solid, and the identity of the murderer is never discovered. The case remains unsolved for years, throwing the people surrounding the event into turmoil, especially Da-on, who is unable to move on with her life. 
Just as one might not be aware that spring is over, Da-on doesn’t realize that she has lost herself for a long time. She undergoes plastic surgery to look like her sister, and even gives her own daughter a name very similar to her dead sister’s. In the course of the next seventeen years, she sets out to discover the truth of what happened, all in hopes that she would recover some of what she has lost. 
Lemon is told from three different alternating female perspectives: Da-on, Hae-on’s younger sister; Tae-rim, Hae-on’s classmate who was jealous of her; and Sanghui, Hae-on’s classmate who also knew Da-on. Though the book loosely follows the structure of the detective novel, finding the culprit is not the main objective here. Instead, the work explores grief and trauma, and asks important questions about guilt, retribution, and the meaning of death and life. 
This novella was originally published as a short story in 2016 for the 50th anniversary issue of Changjak and Bipyeong under the title “You Do Not Know,” which was also adapted into a play of the same title. It was later revised and expanded to become Lemon.

NEWS

Head of Zeus has triumphed in a four-way auction for award-winning Korean author Kwon Yeo-Sun’s novel Lemon, translated by Janet Hong.

Editorial director Madeleine O’Shea acquired UK & Commonwealth rights from Charlotte Seymour at Andrew Nurnberg Associates on behalf of Other Press, which pre-empted World English rights from Barbara J Zitwer. Further deals have been secured in Japan, Vietnam and Thailand.

According to the acquisition statement: 'Lemon is a literary crime novel that explores class and privilege though its study of an unsolved murder case. Told through three different voices, it tracks the lives of those who knew and loved high-school student Hae-on in the years following her murder.' Head of Zeus will publish Lemon alongside Other Press in the autumn of 2021.

Kwon Yeo-Sun has won the Sangsang Literary Award, Oh Yeongsu Literature Award, Yi Sang Literary Prize, Hankook Ilbo Literary Award, Tong-ni Literature Prize and Lee Hyo-seok Literary Award. Lemon is her first novel to be published in English.

Seymour said: "I am just delighted to be representing this extraordinary novel on behalf of Other Press. I sell quite a number of titles from around the world to be translated into English and it is not every day that one sees four UK publishers bidding for a novel in translation! Head of Zeus blew us away with their vision and enthusiasm for publishing Lemon – readers are in for a treat…"

O’Shea said: "Head of Zeus are committed to bringing readers the very best of international genre fiction in translation and so I am truly thrilled to be publishing Lemon here in the UK. This novel is original, enlivening and direct. I love books that use genre to open up questions for the reader, and in Lemon I found the exploration of grief, class, gender and identity just as gripping as the crime mystery – if not more."

Lemon formed part of Zitwer's submission to BookBrunch's Briefcase article ahead of London Book Fair, in which she provided a more detailed description of the novel - 'Compared to the movie Parasite, with its searing look at class and privilege.

'Though the book loosely follows the structure of the detective novel, finding the perpetrator is not the main objective here. Instead, the work explores grief and trauma, and asks important questions about guilt, retribution, and the meaning of death and life.

'In the summer of the 2002, when Korea is abuzz with the Korea-Japan FIFA World Cup, a beautiful nineteen-year-old girl named Hae-on is murdered in what would become known as the High School Beauty Murder. There are two suspects: rich boy Shin Jeongjun, whose car Hae-on was last seen in, and fried chicken delivery boy Han Manu, who witnesses Hae-on in the passenger seat of Jeongjun’s car just a few hours before her death.

'The novel begins with a scene in which Hae-on’s younger sister, Da-on, imagines a police detective interrogating Han Manu. However, when Jeongjun’s alibi turns out to be solid, and no evidence can be pinned on Manu, the identity of the murderer is never discovered. The case remains unsolved for years, throwing the people surrounding the event into turmoil, especially Da-on, who is unable to move on with her life.

'In the course of the next seventeen years, she undergoes plastic surgery to look like her sister and even gives her own daughter a name very similar to her sister’s, ultimately setting out to discover the truth of what happened, all in hopes that she would recover some of what she has lost. Lemon is told at different points in time from three different alternating female perspectives: Da-on, Hae-on’s younger sister; Tae-rim, Hae-on’s classmate who was jealous of her; and Sanghui, another classmate of Hae-on’s who also knew Da-on.'

via bookbrunch