Was the author trying to be weird and confusing for the sake of being weird and confusing? It certainly felt that way as I read this. I'm surprised I actually finished reading the entire book!

This is a fantastical fiction. It reads like a feverish dream, like the author is hallucinating. It's quite disorienting, really. It's weird and I can't sum it up.


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A mesmerizing dream-like journey through the retired actress, Ayami's senses. The reader is unsure what is happening and it continues to be challenging by the end. The language is suffocating, descriptive, awe-inspiring. A perfect book to read on a sweltering summer day.

Dialog-heavy, thought-provoking, quick-paced.

An understanding of Korean culture and its other references can make a difference while reading. There are a lot of references to people in all sorts of art mediums, but also this book is connected to the author's Korean identity. ( )

‘’By the time the heatwave came to an end, nothing remained of the people but ash. They became fused into panes of glass: grey and opaque.’’

Five people search the streets of Seoul for something to grasp at. An actress, an aspiring poet, a teacher, a director, a novelist from abroad. A group of individuals linked by a personal story of loneliness, unfulfillment and the fear of the unknown. But who are they? Why are they wandering in a city smothered by an absurd heatwave? There is no wind, no bird songs, no colours in the sky. A radio switches on and off by itself, blindness and haziness walk hand-in-hand with surreal dreams, apparitions, faces with scars and blood-stained clothes.

A day and a night in a loop where each character is merged into the other, events are seen as if from the window of a car driving in the night, the city lights coming alive and fading away. It is a dinner in a blackout restaurant, a visit to a gallery, the reading of a poem, the performance of an audio theatre. It is life depicted in black-and-white photographs, phone calls with no caller or recipient. It is a drop of sweat, a pianist in the park, a cry of fear in the face of the absolute void....

The Translator’s Note by Deborah Smith is as beautiful and haunting as the novel itself. Her translation elevates the novel to an other realm.

‘’Don’t go far away, even for just one day, because
Because… a day is long, and
I will wait for you.’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ ( )

I think I'm starting to think much of translated fiction is very wacky and weird. Does only the odd get translated into English? This is very dreamlike -- reminds me of David Lynch. There is even a sentence in the book about distinguishing dreams and reality. I usually love this sort of thing. But sometimes a book can go too off the rails, the weirdness doesn't aim for some purpose that I can see. There is tons of lovely dreamlike imagery here, if you consider it individually. But my dream imagery would make great imagery for books too (as I'm sure the dreams of most people would), so I'm not sure what the value is in that. Possibly this went over my head... but the narrative is very cyclical and confusing. ( )

Untold Night and Day is an unusual novel with a lot to unpack. It’s very clever, full of symbolism with themes of identity and how we are heard through different lenses. It’s not a book that you read with 10% of your brain, but one that takes concentration to get the most out of this cleverly constructed novel. Towards the end, I found myself wishing for more linear development and simplicity, yet appreciating the skill involved in this fractured, surreal story of summer in Seoul.

Ayami is an actress and the central character in Untold Night and Day. She works at a theatre for the blind, but this is the last day for the theatre. Jobless, she and her former boss close the theatre and wander the hot, dark streets of Seoul looking for their friend. She’s gone to the hospital, but has asked Ayami to go to the airport early the next morning to meet an author friend. By day, Ayami shows him around while he complains and the story flows into fever dream territory. What is real, what is not and what is only perceived by some becomes a blur in the heat and fatigue of the day.

The story is more linear to begin, focusing on Ayami (such as her legs and scars) with exploration of those around her and her childhood. These people and motifs recur through the novel with increasing frequency as the novel progresses, asking the reader to question how these connect with each other and what do they mean? Deborah Smith’s skills as a translator shine here, with the motifs and images increasing in familiarity as the fever pitch as to what is real and what is imagined reaches its peak. (Her translator’s note explains this in depth; I’d suggest reading first if you want the heads up on what to watch for). The heat and humidity increase as night turns into day, adding to the surreal quality of the novel as the day goes on. Ultimately, the reader is left to make their own decisions as to who Ayami is, what her past is and what is real. Is any of it real and does it really matter if it isn’t?

This would be a great novel to pick apart in study if you are willing to put in the effort to savour it. I must admit that I didn’t always do that, particularly at the end where the disorientation was strong. I like to ‘get’ things, and I didn’t always get this. However, Untold Night and Day is a very clever novel with amazing structure, just not for tired end of day reading.

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