Snow Hunters Hardcover – 6 August 2013
by Paul Yoon (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 173 ratings
OPRAH.COM BOOK OF THE WEEKDAILY BEAST
HOT READNEW YORKER BOOK TO WATCH OUT FOR"Utterly unique." -Los Angeles Times
"Exquisite...hits on all cylinders and roars to life...all the more powerful for its brevity." -New York Times Book Review
"The finest of fables...a small but radiant star in the current literary firmament." -Dallas Morning News
"Though the book is about the consequences of war, the ideas at work in SNOW HUNTERS brilliantly translate to the broader experience of life." -NPR
"[A] quotidian-surreal craft-master." -New York Magazine
Yoon's highly anticipated debut novel SNOW HUNTERS promises to be even more beloved than the collection of stories that introduced him to the literary world. SNOW HUNTERS traces extraordinary journey of Yohan, who defects from his country at the end of the Korean War, leaving his friends and family behind to seek a new life on the coast of Brazil.
Throughout his years there, four people slip in and out of his life:
Kiyoshi, the Japanese tailor for whom he works; Peixe, the groundskeeper at the town church; and two vagrant children named Santi and Bia.
Yohan longs to connect with these people, but to do so he must let go of his traumatic past.
In SNOW HUNTERS, Yoon proves that love can dissolve loneliness, that hope can wash away despair, and that a man who has lost a country can find a new home.
This is a heartrending story of second chances, told with unerring elegance and tenderness.
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Print length
196 pages
Language
Product details
Publisher : Simon & Schuster (6 August 2013)
Language : English
Hardcover : 196 pages
ISBN-10 : 1476714819
ISBN-13 : 978-1476714813
Dimensions : 12.7 x 2.29 x 17.78 cm
Customer Reviews:
4.1 out of 5 stars 173 ratings
Paul Yoon
Paul Yoon is the author of two story collections, Once the Shore, which was a New York Times Notable Book, and The Mountain, which was a National Public Radio Best Book of the Year. His novel Snow Hunters won the Young Lions Fiction Award. A recipient of fellowships from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars and the National Endowment for the Arts, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife, the fiction writer Laura van den Berg, and their dog, Oscar. For more information, please visit: www.paulyoon.com
Customer reviews
4.1 out of 5 stars
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There are 0 reviews and 0 ratings from Australia
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Jackie
4.0 out of 5 stars Four StarsReviewed in Canada on 27 July 2015
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Really enjoyed this novel. A bit confusing with timelines but still interesting history and well written
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KLSH
4.0 out of 5 stars Four StarsReviewed in Canada on 3 September 2016
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Very good
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Cariola
3.0 out of 5 stars Better than Average (just)Reviewed in the United States on 13 May 2014
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The Snow Hunters tells the story of Yohan, a Korean war prisoner who has made his way to Brazil aboard a cargo ship. Uncertain of what his future holds, he disembarks with little besides a card with an unfamiliar name and address on it and a blue umbrella. The latter was given to him by one of the sailors, who pointed out the young girl who directed him to give it to Yohan. The card leads him to the shop of an elderly Japanese tailor who takes him on as an apprentice.
Told in understated, lyrical prose, Yohan's story takes us through his adjustment to a new life. Kyoshi, the tailor, never speaks of his own past or what brought him to Brazil, but it's hard not to like his character as we see his love and concern for Yohan. From the beginning, he is more than an employer to Yohan, and over the years, the two become almost like father and son. Among the friends Yohan makes are two street children, Bia and Santi, and Piexe, the caretaker of the local church. The novel only briefly touches upon the horrors of the war and the prison camp, most movingly in Yohan's haunted memories of the friend he could not save.
Yoon uses sensory details and images well, both to allow the reader to enter this world and to convey mood. If there is one notable flaw in the book, for me, it is the improbable conclusion, which ties things up too neatly. In the last chapters, I was also irritated by the portrayal of Bia, now a grown woman; this was mainly because she (or Yoon) seems to be trying to hard to make her a 'mysterious creature' of sorts.
Final reckoning: The book is better than average, but just by a few hairs. I would recommend it to anyone interested in lyrical prose or the immigrant experience. And it's very short, more novella than novel.
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Peggy Stinson
4.0 out of 5 stars Only for the bravest of readers
====
Print length
196 pages
Language
Product details
Publisher : Simon & Schuster (6 August 2013)
Language : English
Hardcover : 196 pages
ISBN-10 : 1476714819
ISBN-13 : 978-1476714813
Dimensions : 12.7 x 2.29 x 17.78 cm
Customer Reviews:
4.1 out of 5 stars 173 ratings
Paul Yoon
Paul Yoon is the author of two story collections, Once the Shore, which was a New York Times Notable Book, and The Mountain, which was a National Public Radio Best Book of the Year. His novel Snow Hunters won the Young Lions Fiction Award. A recipient of fellowships from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars and the National Endowment for the Arts, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife, the fiction writer Laura van den Berg, and their dog, Oscar. For more information, please visit: www.paulyoon.com
Customer reviews
4.1 out of 5 stars
Top reviews from Australia
There are 0 reviews and 0 ratings from Australia
Top reviews from other countries
Jackie
4.0 out of 5 stars Four StarsReviewed in Canada on 27 July 2015
Verified Purchase
Really enjoyed this novel. A bit confusing with timelines but still interesting history and well written
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KLSH
4.0 out of 5 stars Four StarsReviewed in Canada on 3 September 2016
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Very good
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Cariola
3.0 out of 5 stars Better than Average (just)Reviewed in the United States on 13 May 2014
Verified Purchase
The Snow Hunters tells the story of Yohan, a Korean war prisoner who has made his way to Brazil aboard a cargo ship. Uncertain of what his future holds, he disembarks with little besides a card with an unfamiliar name and address on it and a blue umbrella. The latter was given to him by one of the sailors, who pointed out the young girl who directed him to give it to Yohan. The card leads him to the shop of an elderly Japanese tailor who takes him on as an apprentice.
Told in understated, lyrical prose, Yohan's story takes us through his adjustment to a new life. Kyoshi, the tailor, never speaks of his own past or what brought him to Brazil, but it's hard not to like his character as we see his love and concern for Yohan. From the beginning, he is more than an employer to Yohan, and over the years, the two become almost like father and son. Among the friends Yohan makes are two street children, Bia and Santi, and Piexe, the caretaker of the local church. The novel only briefly touches upon the horrors of the war and the prison camp, most movingly in Yohan's haunted memories of the friend he could not save.
Yoon uses sensory details and images well, both to allow the reader to enter this world and to convey mood. If there is one notable flaw in the book, for me, it is the improbable conclusion, which ties things up too neatly. In the last chapters, I was also irritated by the portrayal of Bia, now a grown woman; this was mainly because she (or Yoon) seems to be trying to hard to make her a 'mysterious creature' of sorts.
Final reckoning: The book is better than average, but just by a few hairs. I would recommend it to anyone interested in lyrical prose or the immigrant experience. And it's very short, more novella than novel.
Read less
7 people found this helpfulReport abuse
Peggy Stinson
4.0 out of 5 stars Only for the bravest of readers
Reviewed in the United States on 24 April 2014
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A different way of writing, nothing "normal" here at all. Yoon writes in choppy sentences which leave you either wanting to close the book and forget it... or... accept his way of writing and let yourself go in it. I decided to let myself go.
Verified Purchase
A different way of writing, nothing "normal" here at all. Yoon writes in choppy sentences which leave you either wanting to close the book and forget it... or... accept his way of writing and let yourself go in it. I decided to let myself go.
For me, "Snow Hunters" was an exercise in seeing a landscape which had been painted with words. There seemed not to be an attempt to write words which allowed the reader to feel the true emotions of the characters. I also found it somewhat of a task to have to keep up with the many changes in time - sometimes asking myself where I was now with my character. After reading the interview with Yoon at the end of the book, I would assume the book was written in exactly the style he wanted to use. In the end, I came away feeling he had accomplished the kind of book he wanted to. I will say, for me at least, I was left wanting much more. I would have given this book only three stars, but the interview gave me insight and to respect the obvious writing wishes of the author, I've decided to give it four stars. You will simply have to judge for yourself if you want to put so much effort into reading something.
4 people found this helpfulReport abuse
D.B.
3.0 out of 5 stars Went nowhere, slowly
4 people found this helpfulReport abuse
D.B.
3.0 out of 5 stars Went nowhere, slowly
Reviewed in the United States on 30 March 2014
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Yes, the book is written with beautiful use of the English language. Yes, the premise of a North Korean prisoner of war refusing to be repatriated, who winds up working for a Japanese tailor in Brazil, is intriguing. I wondered if Mr Yoon had based this story on family history. And then I read that he enjoys the challenge of writing about things he doesn't know. In this case, I felt as though it hurt the story. The chapters set in Brazil could have been set in Chicago, Barcelona, Perth, or just about anywhere. There was no sense of "place". Better were the chapters set in the prisoner of war camp. I probably would have abandoned this book quickly, except that I knew it was short, and I enjoyed the lyrical language. As for the story itself, it went absolutely nowhere, very slowly.
6 people found this helpfulReport abuse
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Yes, the book is written with beautiful use of the English language. Yes, the premise of a North Korean prisoner of war refusing to be repatriated, who winds up working for a Japanese tailor in Brazil, is intriguing. I wondered if Mr Yoon had based this story on family history. And then I read that he enjoys the challenge of writing about things he doesn't know. In this case, I felt as though it hurt the story. The chapters set in Brazil could have been set in Chicago, Barcelona, Perth, or just about anywhere. There was no sense of "place". Better were the chapters set in the prisoner of war camp. I probably would have abandoned this book quickly, except that I knew it was short, and I enjoyed the lyrical language. As for the story itself, it went absolutely nowhere, very slowly.
6 people found this helpfulReport abuse
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