One Left

Translated from the Korean by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton

2022 Longlist

During the Pacific War, more than 200,000 Korean girls were forced into sexual servitude for Japanese soldiers. They lived in horrific conditions in “comfort stations” across Japanese-occupied territories. Barely 10 percent survived to return to Korea, where they lived as social outcasts. Since then, self-declared comfort women have come forward only to have their testimonies and calls for compensation largely denied by the Japanese government.

One Left tells the story of a woman who was kidnapped at the age of thirteen while gathering snails for her starving family. The horrors of her life as a sex slave follow her back to Korea, where she lives in isolation gripped by the fear that her past will be discovered. Yet, when she learns that the last known comfort woman is dying, she decides to tell her there will still be “one left” after her passing, and embarks on a painful journey .

One Left is a provocative, extensively researched novel constructed from the testimonies of dozens of comfort women. The first Korean novel devoted to this subject, it rekindled conversations about comfort women as well as the violent legacies of Japanese colonialism.

About the Author/Translator

Kim Soom is the prize-winning author of nine novels and six short story collections. She has received many awards including the Yi Sang Literary Award and the 2017 Special Reunification Prize. One Left is her first novel translated into English.

Bruce & Ju-Chan Fulton have translated numerous works of modern Korean fiction. Their awards and fellowships include the first US National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship for a Korean project and an America PEN Heim Translation Grant for One Left.

Librarian’s Comments

Kim Soom’s important novel gives a voice to the horrific , overlooked stories of Korean “comfort women” during World War II. Free Library of Philadelphia, United States