Whale

Whale is a 2004 novel by the South Korean author Cheon Myeong-kwan. It starts as the story of a bricklayer and grows into a saga of people across the past century, tracing South Korea’s economic and social development. Reviewers have classed it as East Asian magical realism. Cheon began as a film screenwriter. Kim Ho-Yeon calls it an epic and cinematic novel. Chi-Young Kim’s English translation was shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize.