Our Happy Time.

I didn't know what attracted me to this book, probably because it's an English novel with a Korean author. It's my first time reading a translated book. The book was originally penned in Korean, and translated to English. I picked up the book and read it's synopsis, decided to buy it without knowing if it's a good book.

And I thanked God I did.

Here is the synopsis:

Yujeong has now attempted her third suicide attempt. Her disdain for her mother and indifference to the rest of the world, isolates her from any chance for happiness. Her aunt, Sister Monica often goes to prison to meet with death row inmates. Sister Monica asks Yujeong if she would counsel this death row inmate and Yujeong reluctantly agrees to do so. Yujeong and the death row inmate do not open up to each other immediately. Yujeong comes from a family of wealth but she has never known happiness since the age of 15. The inmate that she meets, named Yunsu has had an even more traumatic childhood experience. Eventually Yunsu ends up involved in the criminal world and gets convicted for murder. With their disparate backgrounds, Yujeongg and Yunsu are still able to connect with each other, because both people know grief like few others could possibly know. As they both regain the will to live through their weekly meetings, they must now deal with their feelings for each other and come to grips with the short amount of time they have together.

I finally found a contender for my favorite book "Me Before You" by Jojo Moyes. This book provoked my thoughts and emotion so greatly. The book includes a series of "blue notes", a diary of the death row inmate, Yunsu reflecting on his traumatic childhood. I think I shed tears at every blue note I read.

I must thank Gong Ji Young for penning this book because she made me understand that even murderers are human beings with feeling, just like us. Because afterall we are all sinners, aren't we? It also somehow gave me a vague picture of why criminal commit crimes because...

"Behind every person who's committed an unimaginable crime is an adult who committed unimaginable violence against them as a child. All of them, as if it was plotted that way. Violence begets violence, and that violence begets even more violence."

While I was Googling this book for this post, I found out that there is actually a movie adaptation of this novel! It's called Maundy Thursday. I haven't watch it yet. Because many times the movies just jinx the original story of the book. The feeling is still fresh in my head after reading the book, so I prefer it to stay that way for a while.

If you haven't watch the movie yet, I suggest you to read the book first. Because movies are just the tip of an iceberg, the rest of the hidden iceberg under the ocean are all  the feelings you create and images you imagine yourself from reading the book =)

P/S: Tissues are mandatory, you will need them. A lot of them.

Here's my verdict: