Human Acts

“Some memories never heal. Rather than fading with the passage of time, those memories become the only things that are left behind when all else is abraded.”

Human Acts is the story of the Gwangju Uprising in South Korea in 1980, told from the perspectives of seven narrators - some named, some unnamed. The author examines the idea that time heals all wounds, and presents a different possiblity - that time, instead, turns memories into ghosts, which stay with us for a lifetime.

This was not an easy book to read, as it deals frankly and graphically with war, torture, and suicide. It is, however, a read that felt timely, especially with the current geopolitical climate.