소금
By 강경애
Cover: The Salt Pans of Batz by Louis-Émile Blanchard (died 1936) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
A Korean peasant family flees hardship for Manchuria, where bandits and Chinese militia press them on every side, and the wife, widowed and robbed of her children, turns to smuggling salt to live. Kang Kyong-ae's short novel is a stark account of the exiled poor, told from a woman's side. This book uses the racial and other slurs of its period as written; the Book Guide explains these words where they occur.
Summary written with Claude Sonnet 5.5.