Mater 2-10: Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024 철도원 삼대 by Hwang Sok-yong 황석영

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE

International Booker–nominated virtuoso Hwang Sok-yong is back with another powerful story―an epic tale that threads together a century of Korean history.

In contemporary Seoul, a laid-off worker stages a months-long sit-in atop a sixteen-story factory chimney. During the long and lonely nights, he talks to his ancestors, chewing on the meaning of life, on wisdom passed down the generations.

Through the lives of those ancestors, three generations of railroad workers, Mater 2-10 vividly portrays the struggles of ordinary Koreans, starting from the Japanese colonial era, continuing through Liberation, and right up to the twenty-first century. It is at once a gripping account of a nation’s longing to be free from oppression, a lyrical folktale that reflects the blood, sweat, and tears shed by modern industrial laborers, and a culmination of Hwang’s career―a masterpiece thirty years in the making.

A true voice of a generation, Hwang shows again why he is unmatched when it comes to depicting the roots and reality of a divided nation and bringing to life the trials and tribulations of the Korean people.

                                                                                                                                  from Amazon

역사허구물에 해당하는 장편소설이다. 내용도 좋지만 영어 번역이 훌륭하다. 전체는 아니지만 철도원 삼대(한국어판)와 Mater 2-10(영어번역판)을 비교하면서 읽었는데 번역자들인 Sora Kim-Russell와  Youngjae Josephine Bae의 노력이 잘 보이는 작품이었다. 역사시대물이고 한국적인 이야기이기 때문에 영어로 표현하기 힘든 표현등이 있고 번역하고 전달하는데 어렵게 느낄 수 있는 내용등도 있어서 작품을 번역하기가 어려울 수 있는데 좋은 번역 때문에 작품을 이해하는데 큰 어려움이 없다.