The two-million copy bestseller and winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize, about a woman who disappears on a train platform, and her family's search to find her When sixty-nine-year-old So-nyo is separated from her husband among the crowds of the Seoul subway station, her family begins a desperate search to find her. Yet as long-held secrets and private sorrows begin to reveal themselves, they are forced to wonder: how well did they actually know the woman they called Mother?Told through the piercing voices and urgent perspectives of a daughter, son, husband, and mother, PLEASE LOOK AFTER MOTHER is at once an authentic picture of contemporary life in Korea and a universal story of family love.With an introduction by Banana YoshimotoA W&N Essential Review A moving Korean novel questions the reliability of memory ― FINANCIAL TIMESKyung-Sook Shin's tale... has hit a nerve' ― GUARDIANshin's prose, intimate, and hauntingly spare, powerfully conveys grief's bewildering immediately . . . A raw tribute to the mysteries of motherhood ― NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWA moving portrayal of the surprising nature, sudden sacrifices, and secret reveries of motherhood ― ELLEThe most moving and accomplished, and often startling, novel in translation I've read in many seasons ... Every sentence is saturated in detail ... It tells an almost unbearably affecting story of remorse and belated wisdom that reminds us how globalism-at the human level-can tear souls apart and leave them uncertain of where to turn ― WALL STREET JOURNALA captivating story, written with an understanding of the shortcomings of traditional ways of modern life. It is nostalgic but unsentimental, brutally well observed and, in this flawlessly smooth translation by Chi-Young Kim, it offers a sobering account of a vanished past. ... We must hope there will be more translations to follow ― TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENTAn extraodinary novel about regret and our relations with those we love ― HARPER'S BAZAARAffecting . . . Poignant and psychologically revealing . . . Readers should find resonance in this family story, a runaway bestseller poised for a similar run here ― PUBLISHER'S WEEKLYKyung-Sook Shin's tale of an elderly woman who goes missing on the Seoul underground has hit a nerve ― GUARDIANPlease Look After Mother made me want to phone my mum ― THE TIMESThis story about family, hope and guilt has universal reach. ― Big Issue in the NorthTender, thoughtful and well-crafted... -- Boyd Tonkin ― The IndependentI found what is in one sense a terribly sad book, life-affirming, portraying the sorrows and joys of the parent-child relationship, familiar whether you live in rural South Korea, or South London ― THE TIMESFull of emotion, this beautifully written book is like nothing I have ever read before and I thoroughly recommend it. ― South Wales Argus About the Author Kyung-Sook Shin is one of South Korea's most widely read and acclaimed novelists. She has been honored with the Manhae Grand Prize for Literature, the Dong-in Literature Prize, and the Yi Sang Literary Prize, Mark of Respect Award (2012), and Ho-Am Prize for an Art (2013) as well as France's Prix de l'Inaperçu and Man Asian Literary Prize (2011). She is the author of many prior works of fiction in addition to PLEASE LOOK AFTER MOTHER, which has been published in 41 countries, and was on the New York Times bestselling list. Shin was a visiting scholar at Columbia University from 2010 to 2011. She currently lives in Seoul.