Author(s): Yu Miri (translated by Morgan Giles)

Novel | Translated fiction | Japan | Korea | Tilted Axis | 2024 Republic of Consciousness Prize long list | 2024 Republic of Conscousness Prize short list

In 1930s Japanese-occupied Korea, Lee Woo-Cheol was a running prodigy and a contender for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. But he would have had to run under the Japanese flag.

Nearly a century later, his granddaughter is living in Japan and training to run a marathon herself. With the help of powerful Korean shamans, she summons the spirit of Lee Woo-Cheol only to be immersed in the memories of her grandfather, his brother, Lee Woo-Gun, and their neighbour, a young teen who was tricked into becoming a comfort woman for Japanese soldiers.

A meditative dance of generations, The End of August is a semi-autobiographical investigation into nationhood and family - what you are born into and what is imposed. Yu Miri's distinct prose, rhythmically translated by Morgan Giles, explores the minutiae of generational trauma, shedding light on the postwar migration of Koreans to Japan.

"A historical period in The End of August is as much a continuum of sensual experiences as it is a series of interconnected events."

* Asymptote *

Prizes: Winner of English PEN Translates Award 2022 (UK). Short-listed for Republic of Consciousness Prize 2024 (UK). Long-listed for Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize 2023 (United States).

Author Biography: Born in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky, Morgan Giles is a literary translator based in Tokyo. She graduated from Indiana University with a BA in Japanese Language and Linguistics in 2009 before moving to London. Her translation of the Naocola Yamazaki short story "Dad I Love You" appeared in The Book of Tokyo (Comma Press). A Japanese author of Korean descent, Yu Miri is the winner of Japan's most prestigious literary prize, the Akutagawa, and several of her novels have been bestsellers. Writing openly about the discrimination received by her ethnic Korean community has also meant criticism and even death threats from ultra-conservative Japanese. After the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, she relocated to Fukushima where she currently hosts a radio show interviewing survivors.