Nowhere to Be Found

Bae Suah was born in Seoul in 1965. After majoring in chemistry as an undergrad, she became a writer at the relatively late age of twenty-eight. Her first short story, which she wrote while learning how to type on a word processor, was published in a literary magazine. Prior to that, she had never taken any creative writing or literature classes. Highway with Green Apples, published in Korean in 1995 and published in the Day One journal in December 2013 in English, is one of her first works. She continued to publish over the years, and in 2001 she moved to Berlin, where she took a break from writing to learn German. In 2008, she began translating German literature into Korean, beginning with Martin Walser’s Angstblute. Suah has also translated two works by W. G. Sebald, one of her favorite German writers (Nach der Natur: Ein Elementargedicht and Schwindel. Gefüehle, both forthcoming). She is also a fan of the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa and is currently translating The Book of Disquiet.

“The creation of a second Cheolsu whose existence is neither proved nor disproved is typical of Bae’s refusal of narrative. The mystery, like the achievement of the book, occurs not in space, but in time.” —The National“A compact, personal account of anomie and withdrawal in a time of rapid social and economic change…an easily digested short book that nevertheless feels much very substantial—a very full story. Impressive, and well worthwhile.” —The Complete Review