On November 5th, “Non dico addio” by Han Kang, author awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2024, will be released in Italy. This novel, published by Adelphi and translated by Lia Iovenitti, tells of an intense and painful winter journey undertaken by the protagonist Gyeong-ha towards the island of Jeju. Her goal is to take care of a friend’s parrot, left alone and in danger of dying.

Gyeong-ha accepts without hesitation the appeal of her friend Inseon, who is hospitalized in Seoul. However, upon arriving in Jeju, the protagonist finds herself facing a violent snowstorm. While trying to orient herself, she gets lost along a dark path, falling and injuring herself. Despite the difficulties, Gyeong-ha’s determination is unshakable; she knows she must reach Inseon’s house to save the parrot. Once she arrives, however, she can only bury it with difficulty in the snow and frozen ground. Shortly after, surprisingly, she sees it return to fly in the cold and dark rooms of the house, together with the friend she thought she had left at the hospital.

Led by Inseon, Gyeong-ha embarks on a new journey: a descent into the depths of her friend’s family history and the tragic massacre that took place in Korea between the end of 1948 and the first months of 1949, when thirty thousand civilians were killed on charges of being communists.

Han Kang’s writing is both lyrical and incisive; it follows the protagonist’s dreamlike and memorial journey, where the distinction between what is visible and invisible seems to dissolve. However, the brutality of violence remains palpable. Published in 2021 in France, “Non dico addio” won the Prix Médicis Étranger in 2023 and the Prix Émile Guimet in 2024. This is the eighth novel by the author, who continues to explore profound themes through a touching and intense narrative.