Snow Hunters: A Novel

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.

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.

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.

Beautifully told, this is a quiet story about a young North Korean man, Yohan,who after being caught by the Americans during the Korean war and held as a prisoner of war in a camp for 3years, is eventually released and sent to a coastal town in Brazil to start a new life. Here, he is to be an apprentice of a Japanese tailor, Kiyoshi. The story is mainly told through a wonderfully descriptive and at times lyrical prose, where we see Yohan's life past and present mainly through his memories, observations, feelings and descriptions of people he knows and meets. It is amazing how much one can visualize from a few written words. Every now and again A character will enter to be a meaningful piece of his story, from a childhood friend, who was also in the camp with him, to his father and more currently the tailor, Kiyoshi, Peixe, the groundskeeper at the town church, and two vagrant children Santi and Bia, all teaching him something that helps him in his life.At the end of the book, we are presented with and interview by the NY Times with the author and a piece that really stuck with me was when asked if if the other books he had been reading influenced him in the writing of this story, he states: " I do think there is a part of me that wrote Snow Hunters as a response to the many books I was reading at that time. In my childhood imagination I always have a selfish fantasy that a book I adore is a letter written to me. And so I write one back. And eventually all of them find one another somewhere in some dead letter office and exist together happily, privately, forever."

I had no idea what to expect when i began reading "Snow Hunters." At first i was put off by the lack of any dialogue, but I soon felt completely comfortable with it. Paul Yoon writes beautifully, and I'm eager to read more of his novels and short stories. I'm thankful that I found this novel.

What a novel - with the lightest of brushstrokes it paints a story, full of nuances, going back and forth, interweaving the poignant stories of two young men, boys really, in war-torn Korea - their youth and their final days together. We open the story in South America & it is here that most of the novel takes place - it a slow story - you can savour every morsel, like a delicious meal, as slowly the novel unwinds , with glimpses of the past, now the present - finally the future is unrevealed - there; but, uncertain , left for the reader to hope, imagine, ponder...I can wholeheartedly recommend this beautiful piece of elegant prose.

Really enjoyed this novel. A bit confusing with timelines but still interesting history and well written

Very good