[Bbang Gubneun Tajagi] Even If Different from the Story of Life

Kim Ae-ran, One of Them Is a Lie
Three People Sharing Secrets and Solidarity
Connected by Hands and Pictures
A Story of Change and Growth Amid Pain

Many of the "stories" we know begin when the protagonist leaves home. Then, after encountering some event, they return home. However, reality is not as simple as the lives of protagonists in stories. What thoughts might children left alone in the world after experiencing loss have? The narrator of this book asks whether there are stories in which no one returns, stories in which no one can go back to where they started. At least, they believe that a story that leaves no one behind does not exist in the world.

Bestselling novelist Kim Ae-ran, who wrote "My Life with a Heartbeat" and "Outside is Summer," has released a full-length novel after 13 years. The author, who has written coming-of-age novels, unfolds a story about secrets and lies in this novel. The three people in the story share secrets they did not want to be discovered with someone else. As the secrets are revealed, they gradually let go of the pressure and guilt. Sometimes, while tightly hiding secrets, they also feel a desire for someone to notice them a little.

The book features a game with the same name as the title as an important device. The game involves introducing oneself in five sentences, with one of them necessarily containing a lie. The lie here may be a simple, absurd sentence made to deceive friends, but it can also be an excellent device that makes difficult truths appear as lies. The story begins with Sori, one of the narrators, subtly revealing her secret to her classmates.

Ji-woo, Sori, and Chae-woon grow closer as they learn each other's secrets. Their secrets share a commonality in that each has experienced loss by losing someone close. Chae-woon harbors the secret that she stabbed her father to protect her mother and herself from his violence. Ji-woo, who witnessed Chae-woon and her mother leaving with the police on the night of the incident, serializes Chae-woon's story in a comic cafe. When Chae-woon learns this, she believes Ji-woo knows her secret, which connects the two.

Sori, who believes she has the ability to foresee death, holds the hand of Chae-woon's father, who is bedridden, at Chae-woon's request. Ji-woo, who lost her mother and started working part-time at a construction site, entrusts her only source of comfort, her pet lizard Yongsik, to her classmate Sori. The three confirm their existence and sometimes help each other through their hands and drawings. An invisible sense of solidarity gradually changes them.

Reality differs from fairy tales. In someone's life, all the precious people may leave. Ji-woo experienced this too. However, watching the people trying to survive at the construction site and seeing Mr. Seonho, who tries not to leave her, Ji-woo decides to rewrite the ending of the story that "everyone must die." She realizes that "letting go of that feeling is ultimately harder than killing everyone."

Even in loneliness and despair that seem to make it impossible to return to their original lives, the protagonists grow little by little and gain hope. Even if they cannot return to a happy life after hardships and trials like heroes in common stories, they discover a slightly changed version of themselves. The narrator says, "In my dream, I might not have returned, but I did."

One of Them is a Lie | Kim Ae-ran | Munhakdongne | 240 pages | 16,000 KRW