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A review by grayjay
City of Ash and Red by Pyun Hye-young
4.0
**minor spoilers
The City of Ash and Red is a grim parable in which a man is set upon by circumstances that seem beyond his control, or are they?
The man is a product developer for a rat extermination company who is transferred for training to head office in another country where he doesn't speak the language. When he gets there he is quarantined due to a raging pandemic and is put on leave from work.
He is trapped in the limbo of a foreign country with no communication and nothing to do. When he contacts home he finds out his ex-wife has been murdered and he is the prime suspect.
I was reminded frequently of Kafka's The Trial in its preoccupation with unfathomable bureaucratic processes and events which are seemingly out of the protagonists hands, but it goes to a much darker place.
The pandemic stuff was too close to reality at the the time I read this. Face masks, officials taking people's temperatures, information changing too quickly to keep up with.
The City of Ash and Red is a grim parable in which a man is set upon by circumstances that seem beyond his control, or are they?
The man is a product developer for a rat extermination company who is transferred for training to head office in another country where he doesn't speak the language. When he gets there he is quarantined due to a raging pandemic and is put on leave from work.
He is trapped in the limbo of a foreign country with no communication and nothing to do. When he contacts home he finds out his ex-wife has been murdered and he is the prime suspect.
I was reminded frequently of Kafka's The Trial in its preoccupation with unfathomable bureaucratic processes and events which are seemingly out of the protagonists hands, but it goes to a much darker place.
The pandemic stuff was too close to reality at the the time I read this. Face masks, officials taking people's temperatures, information changing too quickly to keep up with.