Togani

Sommaire
 Cover Page
 Title Page
 Copyright Page
 Contents
 Togani
 Chapter 1
 Chapter 2
 Chapter 3
 Chapter 4
 Chapter 5
 Chapter 6
 Chapter 7
 Chapter 8
 Chapter 9
 Chapter 10
 Afterword
 About the Author and Translators
 Pagination de l'édition papier
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 257GuideCoverToganiStart of contentContents MODERN KOREAN FICTION Bruce Fulton, General Editor TREES ON A SLOPE Hwang Sun-wŏn THE DWARF Cho Se-hŭi THE RED ROOM: STORIES OF TRAUMA IN CONTEMPORARY KOREA Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton, translators I MET LOH KIWAN Cho Haejin TOGANI Gong Ji-young This book is published with the support of theLiterature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea). 도가니 Togani © 2009 by Ji-young Gong First published in Korea by Changbi Publishers Inc. All rights reserved English translation © 2023 University of Hawai‘i Press English edition is published by arrangement with the author and KL Management, Seoul, Korea All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First printing, 2023 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Kong, Chi-yŏng. | Fulton, Bruce, translator. | Fulton, Ju-Chan, translator. Title: Togani / Gong Ji-young ; translated by Bruce Fulton and Ju-Chan Fulton. Other titles: Togani. | Modern Korean fiction. Description: Honolulu : University of Hawai‘i Press, [2023] | Series: Modern Korean fiction Identifiers: LCCN 2022058110 (print) | LCCN 2022058111 (ebook) | ISBN 9780824894870 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780824895242 (epub) | ISBN 9780824895259 (kindle edition) | ISBN 9780824895235 (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: Deaf children—Abuse of—Korea (South) —Fiction. | Child sexual abuse by teachers—Korea (South)—Fiction. | LCGFT: Novels of manners. Classification: LCC PL992.425.C48 T6413 2023 (print) | LCC PL992.425.C48 (ebook) | DDC 895.73/5—dc23/eng/20230222 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022058110 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022058111 Cover photograph: Janis Baiks/Shutterstock.com University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meetthe guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources. This digital document has been produced by Nord Compo. TOGANI 1 As Kang Inho was loading his car with a meager set of belongings and setting out from Seoul, the maritime fog began its creep into the city of Mujin. Rising from the sea like a huge, colorless beast, it advanced onto the mainland, a damp, dense landfall moving forward, ever forward. The objects in its path, like soldiers sensing imminent defeat, surrendered to the vapor, which absorbed their amorphous shapes into its bosom. Among the swallowed structures was a four-story building of stone perched on a bluff overlooking the sea—the Home of Benevolence. As the mist engulfed the building, the light escaping through the window of the dining hall on the first floor turned the color of mayonnaise. Elsewhere a church bell began to toll, calling the faithful to the Sabbath worship. The tolling reverberated in the distance, the only sound to penetrate the fog. Along the railroad tracks near the Home of Benevolence walked a boy. And as he walked, the fog lowered like the fine mesh of a net, effacing everything it met. Beside the tracks were beds of cosmos that had blossomed early for the season; they paled and trembled as the fog trapped them in its fine weave. The boy was twelve, but if you were to stand him next to other boys his age, you would see how absurdly short he was, how withered and bony he looked. The boy’s striped T-shirt, the color of bleached sky, was wet with mist. Something wasn’t right with the boy—he walked with a limp—but you couldn’t have made out his expression, which was masked by the advancing fog. And soon the rest of him was sucked in. But his feet on the crossties could feel the faint tremor, its measured pulsations. The Sunday worship at the First Church of God’s Glory, in the Mujin city center, commenced at 10 a.m. The fog had already encroached on the church parking lot, and you might have heard an occasional muffled bump as latecomers attempted to squeeze in, high beams helpless to prevent the nudge of fender against fender. The fog devoured the headlights and everything else in its path, in defiance of the scripture then being read in the sanctuary: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” The church custodian, helping to park the cars, dropped his key ring. He bent over and located it only with difficulty. “Damn thick,” he muttered. His voice was lost in the swell of the organ accompanying the choir. The tracks began to rattle. The boy looked back to where the railroad made a wide bend.