Saha

Saha

A Novel

Written by: Nam-Joo, Cho
Translated by: Chang, Jamie

The much-anticipated follow-up to the multi-million-copy international bestseller Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, Saha is a piercing battle cry for the dispossessed.

In a country called Town, Su is found dead in an abandoned car. The suspected killer is presumed to come from the Saha Estates.

Town is the safest and richest nation on earth, controlled by a secretive organization of seven ministers. It is a society clearly divided into the haves and have-nots, and those who have the very least live in the decrepit Saha Estates. Among them is Jin-Kyung, a young woman whose brother, Do-kyung, was in a relationship with Su and quickly becomes the police’s prime suspect. When Do-kyungdisappears, Jin-kyung is determined to get to the bottom of things. On her quest to find the truth, though, she will uncover a reality far darker and crimes far greater than she could ever have imagined.

At once a dystopian mystery and a devastating critique of how we live now, Saha lifts the lid on corruption, exploitation, and government oppression, while, with deep humanity and compassion, showing us the lives of those who suffer at the hand of brutal forces far beyond their control.

Eight years in the making, Saha is a powerful tale of dystopia and a battle cry for the dispossessed.

The much-anticipated follow-up to the multi-million-copy international bestseller Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, Saha is a piercing battle cry for the dispossessed.

In a country called Town, Su is found dead in an abandoned car. The suspected killer is presumed to come from the Saha Estates.

Town is the safest and richest nation on earth, controlled by a secretive organization of seven ministers. It is a society clearly divided into the haves and have-nots, and those who have the very least live in the decrepit Saha Estates. Among them is Jin-Kyung, a young woman whose brother, Do-kyung, was in a relationship with Su and quickly becomes the police’s prime suspect. When Do-kyungdisappears, Jin-kyung is determined to get to the bottom of things. On her quest to find the truth, though, she will uncover a reality far darker and crimes far greater than she could ever have imagined.

At once a dystopian mystery and a devastating critique of how we live now, Saha lifts the lid on corruption, exploitation, and government oppression, while, with deep humanity and compassion, showing us the lives of those who suffer at the hand of brutal forces far beyond their control.

Eight years in the making, Saha is a powerful tale of dystopia and a battle cry for the dispossessed.

Published By House of Anansi Press Inc — Nov 8, 2022
Specifications 240 pages | 5.5 in x 8.25 in
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Excerpt
Written By

CHO NAM-JOO is a former television scriptwriter who subverted the landscape of feminist discourse in Korea with her international bestseller, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, which sold in twenty-five countries and was longlisted for the National Book Award. She graduated from the Department of Sociology of Ewha Womans University and is the author of the dystopian thriller Saha. She lives in South Korea.

Written By

CHO NAM-JOO is a former television scriptwriter who subverted the landscape of feminist discourse in Korea with her international bestseller, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, which sold in twenty-five countries and was longlisted for the National Book Award. She graduated from the Department of Sociology of Ewha Womans University and is the author of the dystopian thriller Saha. She lives in South Korea.

Cho’s sophomore import feels especially, eerily urgent, with prescient references to a fatal pandemic. … A chilling, dystopic fable of corporate greed, climate destruction, and haves and havenots revelations that seems perfectly poised for film adaptation.

” —Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

This successor to Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 (2020), Cho’s chronicle of the misogynistic forces behind South Korea’s #MeToo movement—a finalist for the National Book Award—addresses another equally corrosive social horror. Read. Weep. Learn.

” —Kirkus, STARRED REVIEW

Saha is its own Orwellian vision: bleak and berserk, brilliant and beautiful.

” —Oprah Daily

Chilling … Cho’s close-ups consistently captivate, and the author has an easy hand capturing her characters’ spirit. Fans of Squid Game will be drawn to the author’s grim vision.

” —Publishers Weekly

Saha … is full of small kindnesses amid brutality, as well as several almost hyperbolic scenes that mirror the real world [and] can hit uncomfortably close to home.

” —Literary Review of Canada