Saha

The new novel from the author of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

By: Cho Nam-Joo

Narrated by: Eugenia Low

There are two classes of people in the Town: L and L2. The ones with citizenship are referred to as Ls, or Citizens. They are above a certain level of financial status with knowledge or skills that the Town requires. The L2s are people without citizenship but have a clean criminal record. After interview and physical examination, they can stay and work for two years in this safest and richest corporate nation on earth.

Then there are those below even the L2s, illegal aliens called the saha. They are the immigrants, the disabled, the misfits, victims of violence and poverty who dwell in the decrepit Saha Mansion and are named accordingly.

So what happens when a respected young pediatrician is found dead in a parking lot, with evidence of drug overdose and sexual assault, and the prime suspect is her saha boyfriend?

A major police crackdown ensues, with the boyfriend quickly arrested and executed, but is he really behind the murder? His sister, Jinkyung, vows to find out the truth, only to discover the disappearance of a saha girl who has been the test subject of the Town Medical Lab. What lies behind the impenetrable walls of the Town, and who are the mysterious seven Premiers who rule it?

Eight years in the making, SAHA MANSION is a powerful tale of dystopia and a battle cry for the dispossessed. Cho gives voice to the marginalized and often unseen minority: They are all Kim Jiyoung, every single one of them.