Please Look After Mom
Kyung-sook Shin2008

One day an elderly Korean woman disappears from bustling Seoul Station, and her family launches a desperate, all-out search to find her. As they comb the streets of Seoul, handing out missing-person flyers and following up on reported sightings, they are forced to examine their own relationships with the missing woman.
Like a delicate silk-scroll painting, the story unfurls gently from the perspective of four family members as they take turns narrating their memories. As each character reveals intimate details, a fuller picture of the woman they call Mom slowly emerges. The husband recalls seeing his wife for the first time before their arranged marriage and is filled with regret for words left unsaid. The son remembers his mother's many sacrifices and high hopes for his education and grapples with disappointing her. The daughter worries over her mother's declining health even as she feels guilty about typical mother-daughter frictions. When long-held secrets are exposed, family members are left questioning how well they really knew and understood their mother and wife.
Written in an achingly loving voice, Shin's novel paints a powerful portrait of a family in crisis set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing society. Already a bestseller in South Korea, Please Look After Mom is a timeless story of a mother's fierce love for her family, which will resonate with readers across all geographic and cultural boundaries.

Titre original : 엄마를 부탁해 (2008)