Take a photo of a barcode or cover
helterskelliter 's review for:
The Silence of Bones
by June Hur
“‘This is the consequence of the clash of old and new. We must prepare our hearts, all of us. No matter which side wins, we will all be heartbroken.’” (246)
Set in Joseon Korea during the height of persecution against Catholics as this new religion rubs against the old, this story follows a young girl’s journey to discover where she herself fits into this new world.
Seol, a sixteen-year-old indentured to the police bureau, is tasked with assisting the aloof and distant Inspector Han in investigating a brutal murder of a noble woman in the city. When it is discovered that the woman was Catholic and may have been part of a group of Catholics in the city harboring a fugitive priest, the tone of the investigation changes.
Maid servants are tortured for information. Investigator Han, who blames Catholicism for his own family’s exile years ago, not only amps if the investigation but, eventually, becomes the prime suspect.
He also becomes Seoul’s prime suspect but not for murder per se; she believes Inspector Han may be her lost older brother who left the island they, along with an older sister, had been exiled to a decade ago in order to try and regain some of their family’s lost honor.
This is a rather haunting story. It really explores how the past can predict the future and how clashes of the old and new are never truly resolved. More, we may never really know the people we try to love. Sometimes time cannot heal all wounds and, sometimes, healing isn’t what people want.
Set in Joseon Korea during the height of persecution against Catholics as this new religion rubs against the old, this story follows a young girl’s journey to discover where she herself fits into this new world.
Seol, a sixteen-year-old indentured to the police bureau, is tasked with assisting the aloof and distant Inspector Han in investigating a brutal murder of a noble woman in the city. When it is discovered that the woman was Catholic and may have been part of a group of Catholics in the city harboring a fugitive priest, the tone of the investigation changes.
Maid servants are tortured for information. Investigator Han, who blames Catholicism for his own family’s exile years ago, not only amps if the investigation but, eventually, becomes the prime suspect.
He also becomes Seoul’s prime suspect but not for murder per se; she believes Inspector Han may be her lost older brother who left the island they, along with an older sister, had been exiled to a decade ago in order to try and regain some of their family’s lost honor.
This is a rather haunting story. It really explores how the past can predict the future and how clashes of the old and new are never truly resolved. More, we may never really know the people we try to love. Sometimes time cannot heal all wounds and, sometimes, healing isn’t what people want.