Francophonie 2021: Hiver à Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin

Reading and creative writing workshop by Swiss author Elisa Shua Dusapin

Tuesday, 16 March from 6 pm to 8 pm IST.

For a public having a minimum level of B1 in French | Participation by invitation only | Register here to attend

Swiss author Elisa Shua Dusapin is set to participate in a conversation with Dr. Siba Barkataki, followed by a Q&A session and a creative writing workshop.

This event is brought to you by the official Swiss network in India, together with the Alliances Françaises India and the French Institute in India, in the framework of “Swiss Literary Days”, “In Writing”, and the “Swiss it!” initiative.

About Elisa Shua Dusapin

Elisa Shua Dusapin was born in France in 1992 and raised in Paris, Seoul and Switzerland. Hiver à Sokcho (Winter in Sokcho) is her first novel. Published in 2016 to wide acclaim, it was awarded the Prix Robert Walser and the Prix Régine Desforges and has been translated into six languages.

Hiver à Sokcho (Winter in Sokcho)

Summary

It’s winter in Sokcho, a tourist town on the border between South and North Korea. The cold slows everything down. Bodies are red and raw, the fish turn venomous, beyond the beach guns point out from the North’s watchtowers. A young French Korean woman works as a receptionist in a tired guesthouse. One evening, an unexpected guest arrives: a French cartoonist determined to find inspiration in this desolate landscape.

The two form an uneasy relationship. When she agrees to accompany him on trips to discover an ‘authentic’ Korea, they visit snowy mountaintops and dramatic waterfalls, and cross into North Korea. But he takes no interest in the Sokcho she knows – the gaudy neon lights, the scars of war, the fish market where her mother works. As she’s pulled into his vision and taken in by his drawings, she strikes upon a way to finally be seen…