“With his quietly magical debut, Kang delivers a book that only a history professor such as himself could write. The novel switches between a profoundly personal story of loss and a grand, mythic epic, poking at the varied ethics and aims of historicism as it goes.”— Bustle
A beautifully crafted, enriching saga inspired by East Asian mythology, The Melancholy of Untold History is Minsoo Kang’s debut novel, steeped in history and lyrically exciting, interweaving four complex yet entertaining stories as they shape and create a nation’s literary narrative through the themes of love and grief.
Famous for his dispelling of the national myth, a history professor understands the power of narrative. He has inspired another young professor to search for her own truths, while trying to understand the way fiction creates fact and how sometimes the past can only be understood by filling in holes with a new narrative. Which is exactly what he needs when his wife passes away to parse meaning out of a world that no longer makes sense.
Together the protégé and the Historian find comfort in each other. Yet they know their time together is fleeting, as time usually is. Only the gods have an abundance of time, and yet—the two discover—even that might not be so clear cut. Part of their homeland’s myth tells of four gods who squabbled and argued and destroyed and rebuilt time and again. Or did they?
Spanning 3,000 years and multiple voices—with tales within tales woven expertly together—The Melancholy of Untold History reveals people who seek to confront the hardships of life through storytelling. Mixing the East Asian mythos with a postmodern approach to standard sci-fi/fantasy narrative tropes, Minsoo Kang has created a challenging, beautiful, sad, humorous, and ultimately unforgettable novel of love, grief, and myth-making.
Minsoo Kang discusses his debut novel with Ed Lin.
During the event, The Melancholy of Untold History will be available for purchase.
Minsoo Kang: The Melancholy of Untold History with Ed Lin
Wednesday, July 24, 2024 | 6:30 PM (EDT)
The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017
About the Speaker:
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Minsoo Kang is a historian, fiction writer, and translator, currently a professor of history at the University of Missouri – Saint Louis. He is author of the history book Sublime Dreams of Living Machines: The Automaton in the European Imagination, the short story collection Of Tales and Enigmas, and the Penguin Classics translation of the Joseon dynasty novel The Story of Hong Gildong. The Melancholy of Untold History is his debut novel. |
About the Moderator:
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Ed Lin, a native New Yorker of Taiwanese and Chinese descent, is the first author to win three Asian American Literary Awards. His books include his first novel Waylaid, and a trilogy of mysteries set in Manhattan’s Chinatown in 1976. His current mystery series is set in Taipei, and the latest of which, Death Doesn’t Forget, was published by Soho Crime in 2022. His YA debut, David Tung Can’t Have a Girlfriend Until He Gets Into an Ivy League College, was published by Kaya Press in 2020. Lin lives in Brooklyn with his wife, actress Cindy Cheung, and son. |
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