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Bestseller author apologizes over plagiarism, returns with new fiction

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By Kang Hyun-kyung

Shin Kyung-sook / Korea Times file
Shin Kyung-sook / Korea Times file
Million-seller author Shin Kyung-sook released her new fiction novel "I've Gone to Father" Wednesday, offering her belated formal apology in response to allegations that her 2016 work "Legend" plagiarized the late Japanese author Yukio Mashima's short fiction novel "Patriotism."

Noting it was untended, Shin said she was sorry for causing a stir.

"I deliver my sincerest apologies to readers for my carelessness," she said during an online press conference for her new fiction on Wednesday. "I took my mistake and flawed past seriously and will not forget what I did in my future work."

This is her first in-person apology since the plagiarism allegation was raised six years ago.

She resumed her literary career in 2019 with the release of her fiction "The River Never Knows What's Loaded on the Ship." At that time, she offered a written apology.

On Wednesday, a nervous-looking Shin said she had been feeling extremely uncomfortable for the past six years and even felt guilt.

"I've spent those years feeling mounting pressure because of my wrongdoing that I committed when I was young," she said. "I felt like I had the scar of a pitchfork on my foot and watched it during the last six years. My heart was wrenching whenever I look at it and I felt like I myself stood on a cliff whenever I thought of my readers."

She said her new book is her tribute to nameless fathers.

Published by Changbi, "I've Gone to Father" revolves around the narrator who takes care of her father who is left alone in the fictional city of J after his wife is hospitalized.

His life is the epitome of modern Korea's turbulent history. Losing his father to infectious disease when he was 14, he suddenly became the breadwinner responsible for his family. His life was embroiled in turmoil when he was 17 with the outbreak of the Korean War. He witnessed decades of political chaos in the post-war era beginning with the April Revolution of 1960 that ousted then President Syngman Lee from the presidency. The responsible cattle farmer was able to send his six children to college through his hard work. He took part in rallies in the 1980s when beef prices fell sharply.

Shin is the author of the million-seller book "Please Look After Mom" which was translated into English in 2008. She is the winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize given to a translation of the best novel written by an Asian writer.
Kang Hyun-kyung hkang@koreatimes.co.kr


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