[ Convalescence ] Bilingual Edition - Han Kang 2024 Nobel Prize Winner

“The Recovering Human” (or Convalescence) is a story about a woman who comes to the hospital after neglecting a burn on her ankle, leaving it in a state that is nearly beyond recovery.

To say that this work feels especially painful simply because of the misfortune in the older sister’s life and the grief of the younger sister left behind is not sufficient. Rather, it is because of a certain relationship between the sisters. The younger sister loved her older sister “with all her strength,” yet the older sister, even while knowing this, turned away from her. She refused to speak and would not even meet her gaze. The focus is not so much on the origin of the pain, but on the condition of pain itself—not on the cause or resolution of their relational breakdown, but on the very fact of their misalignment.

In truth, the word “recovery” may be one of the least fitting terms for Han Kang’s fiction. Just as the burning moxibustion treatment called a “direct moxa cone,” placed on the aching ankle, fails to serve as a symptomatic remedy and instead leaves a deeper wound, The Recovering Human portrays a fundamental human pain that cannot be forgotten or healed by anything. The author seems to suggest that the only way to restore our lives is to carry that pain with us and embrace it.

* Bilingual Edition Han Kang: Convalescence is based on the original text of The Recovering Human published by Munhakgwa Jisungsa.