Book releases for Tango and Goodbye, Hill

Gu Hye-sun’s “Tango”; Cha In-pyo
More book news.
First, we have the new cover art (above) and a bit more description about the book being published by Gu Hye-sun (Boys Before Flowers), titled Tango.
Gu’s book is based on memories of her own bittersweet first love, though the fictionalized story first rose in her mind upon hearing Ryuichi Sakamoto’s song “Tango.” (I posted that song in the previous post; below is a second version.)
It’s explained that the tango motif is linked to the story because in the dance, if the feet do not step together in time, they only hurt each other. The book will come with approximately 40 of Gu Hye-sun’s own illustrations.
But the more interesting book news, in my opinion, is that of veteran Hallyu actor Cha In-pyo (Crossing, Hanbando, Star In My Heart). Because while this is his debut novel, don’t write this off as a vanity project or mere ego-fluffery — his book deals with the issue of comfort women, which is a topic I find deeply compelling (the sexual slavery of hundreds of thousands of women, mostly Korean but also including Chinese, Filipina, Vietnamese, and those of other Southeast Asian nationalities, by the Japanese military in its imperial expansion years leading up to and during WWII).
SONG OF THE DAY
Ryuichi Sakamoto – “Tango.” I mentioned there was another version of this song in the last post and someone asked for it. This is the Japanese-language version of the same song. [ Download ] Incidentally, there’s also a slower Portuguese version: [ Download ] (Personally I like the Spanish one best.)
Tags: books, Cha In-pyo, Gu Hye-sun, star extracurricular activities

































