The Hole

September 1, 2017

In this exquisite psychological suspense, a best seller in multiaward winner Pyun's native South Korea, Oghi awakens paralyzed after the car crash that killed his wife and realizes that he's now dependent on his mother-in-law. Oghi can't share his grief with this off-putting woman, who's mourning the loss of her only child and in short order hires and fires a live-in caretaker and a physical therapist, eventually taking over responsibility for tending to Oghi herself. As he deals with the shame and pain of disability and dependency, Oghi reflects sadly on his troubled marriage. His father-in-life criticized him relentlessly, and though he loved his wife, he seemed not to understand her or to know how to make her happy. When she and Oghi move into a new home, they leave the lights burning to signify their bright new life, but Oghi wakes up in the middle of the night to find the house dark and wonders, "When did all that light first start to fade?" Now his mother-in-law seems intent on destroying his wife's carefully tended garden by digging a huge hole whose purpose readers will intuit, though they won't be exactly right. VERDICT A spooky, troubling tale, lucidly told, for literary and thriller fans alike.

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