The Greek Hour | Review

Disability sits at the heart of Han Kang's latest novel to reach English readers—The Greek Hour, from the South Korean author and 2024 Nobel Prize laureate in literature. The story traces an unlikely bond that forms between a mute woman and a blind man as they study the language of ancient Athens. In Seoul: she has lost her voice to trauma; he—returned home after emigrating to Germany as a boy—is losing his sight to disease. Heat and loneliness press down cruelly on the city ("She walks to keep from obsessively gathering and reassembling the shards of memory in the emptiness of dawn"), but a breath of life can still be found. Only if they search for it together, Han Kang whispers to us, confirming once again her restrained, unhurried prose. Almost a poem.