In a country called ‘Town’, Su is found dead in an abandoned car. The suspected killer is presumed to come from the Saha Estates.
Town is a privatised country, controlled by a secretive organisation known as the Seven Premiers. It is a society clearly divided into the haves and have-nots and those who have the very least live on the Saha Estates. Among their number is Jin-Kyung, a young woman whose brother, Do-Kyung, was in a relationship with Su and quickly becomes the police’s prime suspect. When Do-Kyung disappears, Jin-Kyung is determined to get to the bottom of things. On her quest to find the truth, though, she will uncover a reality far darker and crimes far greater than she could ever have imagined.
At once a dystopian mystery and devastating critique of how we live now, Saha lifts the lid on corruption, exploitation, and government oppression, while, with deep humanity and compassion, showing us the lives of those who, through no fault of their own, suffer at the hand of brutal forces far beyond their control.
I very much enjoyed Cho Nam-Joo’s debut novel – Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 – and was intrigued to learn that her follow up would be dystopian in nature. As long-time readers of Jo’s Book Blog will know, it’s a genre that I’m a huge fan of and I was eager to see Cho Nam-Joo’s take on this type of novel.
As I started reading, it quickly became apparent that Saha was quite a different take on the genre. Typically, the protagonist starts out contentedly enough before starting to realise that something isn’t quite right and / or getting caught up in “events”. Saha was quite a different kind of novel. Cho Nam-Joo has created a distinctly dystopian world, but has turned the focus to those living on the periphery of this society, exploring the lives of multiple characters rather than focussing on the dystopia itself. It read like a series of vignettes as opposed to what I consider a typical dystopian novel which follows an individual or group as they fight the good fight.
Through the many characters – and if I’m honest, there were too many for me to form any real connection with any of them – the reader gains an understanding of how Town works including its history and establishment, the development into an authoritarian state, how society is divided, and why some individuals end up living in the impoverished Saha Estates. As a setting, I loved it, and while I might have preferred a more traditional narrative, I do think that the world building was excellent. While some residents of Town are well off and well looked after, those in the Saha Estates have nothing except each other. I liked the portrayal of this community coming together out of necessity, establishing their own rules, and looking out for each other where possible. It’s a place for those with nowhere else to go, and for that reason they have something in common despite the varied backgrounds of those living there.
Overlaying it all is the question of the death of Su – a young doctor found dead in the Saha Estates where she didn’t belong and whose demise the police quickly decide is the result of an assault and murder by a Saha resident. From the blurb, you might be forgiven for thinking that this mystery is a key theme and if so, you would (like me) be incorrect in that assumption. We do find out what happened to Su, but this is a small part of the novel overall. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed by that. It was due to my own expectations, but I was expecting a more involved mystery based upon the blurb.
Similarly, I think that I would have preferred a more traditional narrative, although that is of course just my opinion. As with Kim Jiyoung, Saha explores the inequalities experienced by many and the way that the system may be stacked against them from the get-go. Where I found elements that I could relate to in Kim Jiyoung (not everything, certainly, but there was enough that I myself have experienced to some degree that I understood the author’s aim) I didn’t form the same connection with Saha. I understood it as a critique of the way that certain states and nations operate and how inequality is perpetuated, but I didn’t find the same level of connection, although that may be down to my own ignorance as to what day to day life is really like for some.
Overall, I found Saha to be an interesting read although it was very different to what I was expecting and hoping for. I think that I may have got more out of it had there been a smaller group of characters to focus on who would then have had the opportunity to develop fully with more focus on the mystery promised in the blurb. That said, the world-building was excellent and as a bleak a vision of a city-state as I could hope for, and so I think that this novel, with its focus on the themes rather than the narrative, just wasn’t for me. Cho Nam-Joo is a superb writer however, and while this novel may not be a favourite, I will happily read whatever she pens next.
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