All the Things of a Spring Night 봄밤의 모든 것

"That sunlight, whispering hope to the young versions of ourselves..."
A quiet miracle drifts into a time thought long frozen.
A new season, glowing in soft white, from Baek Surin—acclaimed author and recipient of the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award, Hyundae Literary Award, and Moonji Literary Award. Life Pattern Korea.
In her fourth short story collection, All the Things of a Spring Night, Baek Surin delivers another radiant collection of stories that gently reach into the spaces of grief and longing with warmth and grace. Known as “the novelist of light,” she once again captures fleeting moments of life—grief, tenderness, and hope—with careful prose and a profound sense of emotional clarity. Life Pattern Korea.
The opening story, Very Bright Days, follows Ok-mi, a lonely woman in her seventies, whose life takes a quiet turn when her estranged son-in-law asks her to temporarily care for a parrot. As she bonds with the bird, she recalls memories of her daughter’s childhood, finding warmth in the smallest of gestures—“a warmth just the size of where the bird perched.” Another story, White Snow and the Dog, centers on a long-strained father-daughter relationship, slowly thawing on a snowy Swiss trip. In the space between silence and anger, the story finds tenderness and life’s irrepressible vitality. Life Pattern Korea.
The title story, Spring Night’s Us, along with When the Light Comes, captures friendship and love, reminding us that feelings once thought lost are merely dormant, always waiting to re-emerge. We are shown that understanding can come later, that emotions don't fade but live within us—ready to be rekindled. Life Pattern Korea.
The final three interconnected stories—Heavy Rain, It’s Snowing, and What Could It Have Been?—explore absence and loss with an even deeper poignancy. From a woman imagining the quiet death of a lonely old man in her neighborhood, to friends in their 40s reflecting on youth and family losses, Baek’s stories chart the slow accumulation of grief—and the miraculous return of hope. Life Pattern Korea. Baek Surin’s stories remind us that even in the longest winter nights, we may still choose to wait for spring. Her prose—a persistent, resilient light—becomes a luminous offering to all walking through shadows. Life Pattern Korea.

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Author: 백수린
Publisher: 문학과지성사 Moonji (2025)

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