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By Kang Aa-young
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| Korean edition of 'In Every Moment We Are Still Alive' by Tom Malmquist |
As if it's a scene from a medical drama, Tom Malmquist's book "In Every Moment We Are Still Alive," recently translated into Korean, brings readers into a vividly portrayed tragedy as Tom's partner Karin, who is 33 weeks pregnant, is diagnosed with leukemia and is in a medical crisis closetodeath. Then their daughter, Livia, comes to life through a cesarean section.
The book begins as Tom's pregnant wife Karin arrivesat the hospital. Doctors were able to save the baby, however, fail to save the mom from acute leukemia. And in this cruel moment, Tom gets a daughter, but loses his partner.
Tom is a poet and sportswriter. He has written two highly acclaimed poetry collections "Sudden Death" and "Fadersmjolken" and this autobiography is his first book.
The Swedish ice hockey player-turned-writer's first yet prize-winning book is about loss and family.
It's about a struggle to cope with his wife's unexpected death during childbirth, a struggle to raise newborn daughter Livia alone and then another struggle to accept his father's death ― all written based on his own experience.
As its title suggests, "In Every Moment We Are Still Alive" tells of a year that changes everything in one's life as Tom has to deal with anger and pain of loss with overwhelming responsibility of raising his newborn daughter alone, all at the same time.
However, thisbook differentiates itself from other same old tragic stories as the writer clearly understands that the best way to express pain is a voice that suppresses pain.
The "raw" storytelling technique gets its peak moment when Tom "observes" his soul mate's death: "The patient has been in a state of asystole since 05:52, continued rising potassium, lactate steady at twenty-eight, ECMO unchanged at five thousand five hundred revolutions per minute, 5.1 liters of flow, the prospects for continued life considered to be non-existent, and I now make the decision to turn off the respirator and ECMO. Nothing makes a sound anymore; the room becomes silent. Nygren checks his watch and adds: Patient is pronounced dead at 06:31," Tom writes in the book.
Tom writes about the twists of fate that overturned his life in a realistic yet composed tone. By describing his experience in present tense, the autobiography has been praised as "one of the most powerful books about grief ever written."
