City of Ash and Red 재와 빨강 by Hye-young Pyun 편혜영

"Distinguished for his talents as a rat killer, the nameless protagonist of Hye-young Pyun's City of Ash and Red is sent by the extermination company he works for on an extended assignment in C, a country descending into chaos and paranoia, swept by a contagious disease, and flooded with trash. No sooner does he disembark than he is whisked away by quarantine officials and detained overnight. Isolated and forgotten, he realizes that he is stranded with no means of contacting the outside world. Still worse, when he finally manages to reach an old friend, he is told that his ex-wife's body was found in his apartment and he is the prime suspect. Barely managing to escape arrest, he must struggle to survive in the streets of this foreign city gripped with fear of contamination and reestablish contact with his company and friends in order to clear his reputation. But as the man's former life slips further and further from his grasp, and he looks back on his time with his wife, it becomes clear that he may not quite be who he seems. From the bestselling author of The Hole, City of Ash and Red is an apocalyptic account of the destructive impact of fear and paranoia on people's lives as well as a haunting novel about a man’s loss of himself and his humanity."  from Amazon

한국인 작가 편혜영의 소설 '재와 빨강'을 영어로 번역한 작품이다. 이 작가의 작품을 몇 편 읽었는데 심리소설을 지향하는 작품들이었다. 이 작품은 공포물, 심리소설, 디스토피아 소설, 도시물 같은 다양한 장르에 속하는 거 같다. 한국판의 최초 발행 연도가 2010년도라고 하는데 내용이 가지는 시사적인 면은 독자들로 하여금 현재를 다시 보게 하는 매력이 있다. 아 주 어려운 표현이나 단어가 많이 등장하는 것은 아니지만 집중력을 요구하는 부분들이 있다. 구글을 검색하면 한국판 미리 보기가 있기에 내용을 좀 보고 읽기 시작하는 것이 좋을 거 같다.

"Coming to this country, throwing himself into the garbage, living as a vagrant in a park, drifting down the sewer - as unbelievable as it was, it had all started with a single rat.... Rats and epidemics..... The virus this time is transmitted by people. I could be carrying it...." -- 본문 중에서