The White Book by Han Kang

An intensely personal blend of fiction, autobiography and stark photography

'Swaddling bands, newborn gown, salt, snow, ice, moon, rice, waves'; The White Book is a meditation on the colour white from Booker International Prize winning Korean author Han Kang. Over the course of 130 or so pages of short prose pieces Kang weaves together seemingly individual responses to a list of white things 'With each item I wrote down, a ripple of agitation ran through me, I felt that yes, I needed to write this'.

With its blend of fiction, highly personal auto-biographical elements and stark monochrome photography this is an experimental and immersive novel without a clear narrative structure. That said, the book is thematically cohesive and elegantly structured.  

Translating duties again fall to the talented Deborah Smith who not only brings the prose to life in English but effortlessly captures the significance of the colour white in Korea to readers. As one of the five cardinal colors, stemming from principles of Confucianism and Buddhism, white has particular symbolic significance in Korea. White is still worn for weddings, new years, celebrations and funerals; a theme with Kang explores through the birth and death of the narrator's elder sister. 

Kang began to work on The White Book whist undertaking a writing residency in Warsaw. The city itself, ravaged by World War II, provokes distant memories from her own family history which Kang faces head on in. The book begins with 'swaddling bands' and ends with 'shroud' as the narrator reflects on her elder sister, her onni, who was born and died 2 hours after being born. 'This life needed only one of us to live it', the narrator reflects.

The book moves at pace and at times you'll want to reread passages and whole sections to savour the images and meaning Kang conjures from a simple object like a grain of rice or a feather. The White Book is an intensely personal and moving book about the fragility of life told through the purity and austerity of the colour white. 

The White Book by Han Kang published by Portobello Books, 130 pages.     

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