Korean Book About A Pandemic

Truth is stranger than fiction.

“Official announcements that the epidemic had become a pandemic were posted all over the city. Health centers in every district were expanded, and quarantine levels rose.” Page 182, City of Ash and Red, by Hye-Young Pyun.

This novel is not about the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. It’s about a man wrongly transferred to a foreign country, only to find it in a high-blown pandemic and how he was forced into quarantine.

It was published in 2010 and translated into English by Sora Kim-Russell in 2018, two years before the current pandemic. We don't know the man's country. The book doesn't give us his name. Readers don’t miss his identity because they are hypnotized by a story that has a uncanny resemblance to their present.

The man-with-no-name is a hero because he literally lived underground, foraged for food like a rat. Correction. He feels that rats are more intelligent than him because they know how to by-pass adversity.

This book is like the current pandemic. Citizens wear masks, they are scared of taking public transport for fear of touching infected overheard hand rails and ringing the bell. Hotels do not have room service.

An electronic loudspeaker announces meals, that are placed outside the door, in the building where the man is in quarantine. This was not always the case. Before the loudspeaker, some people stole food from the hallway.  

I don’t know about the original, which was written in Korean, but this English translation has flowing language, with no forced barricades. Telling the story is the priority, not showing off language prowess. That is what makes it so disturbing. Straight forward. Human beings are selfish, wicked and rat-like.

City of Ash and Red is like the bark of a tree rough, full of grooves and has an undecided color. It’s the story of us and the 2020 pandemic.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.