The Plotters
Ratings10
Average rating3.3
15
Ratings10
Average rating3.3
• A complex and darkly funny noir thriller that led to a six-way international bidding war in the US • Un-su Kim has been hailed as a rising star of Korean literature. The Plotters is his first novel to be translated into English • A fascinating moral tale about power and corruption in Korean society filled with betrayals, power struggles and effortlessly smooth assassinations • Reseng is a young assassin working for a powerful syndicate of professional killers. But when Reseng steps out of line on his latest job, the hunter becomes the hunted. Will he be next on the kill list? Or will three young women with a subversive plot of their own change the status quo? • In the vein of Roberto Bolaño and Haruki Murakami, The Plotters has all the hallmarks of a thriller paired with a highly original voice and a cast of unusual and notable characters • Much attention has recently turned towards the originality and style of Korean crime fiction, with books such as Han Kang’s The Vegetarian amassing significant literary recognition • Un-su Kim has won the Munhakdongne Novel Prize, Korea's most prestigious literary prize, and was nominated for the 2016 Grand Prix de la Littérature Policière
Reviews with the most likes.
It was ok - not really my style of book. The summary I read that led me to pick the book was misleading. I should have read the goodreads summary instead - it was much more on target.
Korean librarian assassins, some knitting. Worth four stars just for those things.
Would make one hell of a TV script with Reseng, our protagonist torn between the old world of trained career assassins, the back-alley, anything for a buck world of the Meat Market and the slick, MBA having, Stanford educated Hanja and his corporate supermarket of death. The host of eclectic characters from the soft-hearted but bear-sized owner of the pet crematorium, the cross-eyed, knitting librarian, the non-stop talking convenience store owner and her wheelchair bound sister. The action is done well and the story moves but I guess I like a bit more flourish in my writing. The translation is serviceable but I have a Western appetite for wordy flourishes on the page and the need for some authorial pyrotechnics. It's a question of activist versus originalist translations explored a bit more here: https://youtu.be/rKmkhWh_vzY
