this wasv a strange and very confusing story. There were some very unusual people and a confusing story line. The conclusion was very abrupt and incoclusive. Sorry not a story thst appealed to me. I usually like Dystopian stories but this one was too unimaginable.

This was a very interesting read. I dont usually read dystopian novels, particularly ones that represent society as we know it because i like my escapism in books. But this was really well done and insightful

A strange but interesting read, Saha is more like a series of short stories about the people who live in on the Saha Estates in the dystopian state of "The Town", they are tolerated but not really supported by the state. I loved all of the characters, everyone has an individual story to tell but the stories interlink together.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read Saha.

In a country called ‘Town’, Su is found dead in an abandoned car. The suspected killer is presumed to come from the Saha Estates.

Town is a privatised country, controlled by a secretive organisation known as the Seven Premiers. It is a society clearly divided into the haves and have-nots and those who have the very least live on the Saha Estates. Among their number is Jin-Kyung, a young woman whose brother, Dok-yung, was in a relationship with Su and quickly becomes the police’s prime suspect. When Dok-yung disappears, Jin Ky-ung is determined to get to the bottom of things. On her quest to find the truth, though, she will uncover a reality far darker and crimes far greater than she could ever have imagined.

At once a dystopian mystery and devastating critique of how we live now, Saha lifts the lid on corruption, exploitation and government oppression, while, with deep humanity and compassion, showing us the lives of those who, through no fault of their own, suffer at the hand of brutal forces far beyond their control.

Afraid this one just wasn’t for me.

This short novel introduces us to a dystopian city-state called Town where you belong to one of three levels of society: either you are a full Citizen, an 'L2' who's licensed for up to two years to fulfil particular jobs, or a 'Saha', one of the social outcasts who lives in the high-rise Saha estates. But Saha, the second of Cho Nam-Joo's novels to be translated into English, feels caught between two narratives, two types of story. One follows Saha resident Jin-Kyung's determination to get to the bottom of her brother's disappearance after he's falsely accused of murdering his girlfriend. The other skips around between the people who live in Saha and is organised by the numbers of the units they occupy, sometimes tracing the stories of different residents who occupied the same unit in turn. I think I understood what Nam-Joo was trying to do with this second narrative, and I liked the idea of bringing the Saha estates to life through the voices of this peripatetic community. But it strays back too often to Jin-Kyung for this to really take off, and the individuals often blur into a litany of suffering rather than strongly coming forward in their own right. I also struggled with the choppy transitions and sketchy writing, which, as other reviewers have commented, often felt like an early draft. I was struck to see that this was translated by Jamie Chang, who also translated Kim Hye-Jin's Concerning My Daughter - and I had exactly the same problems with the prose in that novella! So, this at least may be a translation issue, but I still didn't feel that Nam-Joo really pulled off what she set out to achieve here. 2.5 stars.

DNF - 25%

I can't do this one right now. I'm a big fan of the author's Kim Jiyoung but this wacky dystopia is not doing it for me. It reads like a series of vignettes, snapshots of different characters and themes. And I think that last word there is key-- this is a story that focuses more on themes and ideas than on creating memorable characters and an engaging story.

I can see the capitalist critique emerging, which is not uninteresting, but I need something a bit more engaging and immersive at this moment.

I was drawn to this book by its dystopian setting in a near future Asian city run by a company rather than an elected government. I found the initial sections set the scene very well and I quickly understood the basis of the dystopian world.I could understand that the characters were struggling but didn't fully empathise with any one person and found that for me this diminished the novel
The background to the dystopian world started to become increasingly bizarre and to me less believable when the story started to focus on the Research Centre . I could feel for the young woman who was being researched on without her consent but when the story started talking about orphans who were locked away in the centre and trained to memorise facts so that computers were not needed , I found my ability to believe in the story diminished and I started to not enjoy as much , it was all very one flew over the cuckoos nest but even less believable . Ultimately I believed I the place Saha more than the characters in the book .
The authors prose style was easy to read and didn't not suffer from translation
I did finish the book but wouldn't be recommending it
Read an early copy on Netgalley. Uk the book is published by Simon and Schuster uk on 30th November 2022

Set in dystopian age at Saha Estate, the story starts with the death of Su, a doctor. The first suspect came to mind of the authorities are the lowlife people of squatters in Saha Estate, and nobody batted an eye when one of them, Do-Kyung was suspected.

Saha Estate lives was hard; no plumbing, no electricity and the only job you’re eligible to was hard, tedious labor. Hence when Do Kyung’s sister pressed after her brother’s arrest, she decided to against the ministers. The secretive, so-called fair ministers. To confront the system, she befriended the old man and a grandma, with some deep, dark twist at the end.

The story presented in storytelling proses that flows smoothly with the plot, as expected from Ms Cho. I have to dig up few interviews with Ms Cho to imagine how Saha works, and came to conclusion that Saha might be inspired by Sakha Republic, a region located in Russia. Or maybe the town in Total Recall (2012).

Thank you @netgalley for the ARC!

More a series of interlinking sketches than a conventional novel, Cho Nam-Joo’s Saha is set in a fictional land called Town. An island once colonised by a now-defunct corporation then swallowed up by enigmatic foreign investors, Town has morphed into an autonomous city-state, an authoritarian realm ruled by a shadowy council of leaders. Cho focuses on Saha Estates, a crumbling, out of the way complex, whose residents share its name. The Sahas are the lowest of the low, isolated and impoverished, marginalised people taking on the low-paid, dirty work no one else wants. The rest of Town is populated by the Ls and L2s. The prosperous Ls trade skills and knowledge for financial independence and a privileged existence, while the more precarious L2s have temporary visas, open for renewal on a cyclical basis.

Cho opens with the death of Su, a once-prosperous L, who somehow ended up in a relationship with a Saha man, Do-Kyung. Abandoning Su’s body, Do-Kyung flees and his sister Jin-Kyung is left to solve the mystery of Su’s death and her brother’s disappearance. But this puzzle is peripheral to most of what follows. Instead, Cho uses it as a framing device for vignettes through which the history and structure of Town's revealed. Cho apparently drew inspiration from the former Walled City of Kowloon, an area that remained separate when the rest of Hong Kong was handed over to the British. Like that Walled City, Saha Estates is a potentially lawless place but it’s also home to a thriving community with its own rules and close bonds. Cho explores the lives and experiences of a handful of residents, women escaping domestic abuse, a mainland nurse whose mistake forced her into exile, the desperate and often the undocumented.

In interviews Cho’s stressed her interest in exploring themes rather than story, and it’s definitely her themes that stand out. She’s obviously working within traditions of speculative, dystopian fiction so, as always, there are parallels with real world scenarios. The obvious connection is the one between Town and present-day South Korea. Both are marked by rigid social stratification and growing inequality; countries where some lives are accorded far more status and value than others, and those deemed without value are increasingly disposable. Both restrict access to certain forms of education and medical provision to those with money; and chaebol corporations wield enormous power. There are potential similarities here too between Town and the possible futures of Korea’s corporate or metropolitan cities like Uhlsan. But Cho’s oblique commentary on the evils of contemporary capitalism and its disenfranchised underclasses never quite comes together. It reminded me a little of Strange Beasts of China a similarly veiled, if more fantastical, episodic portrait of dystopian society. But Cho’s creation is less richly imagined, less fiercely critical. Even so, this is incredibly readable, smoothly translated and fluid. I was happily absorbed in events and characters; and the issues Cho raises are highly relevant. But the mystery elements are woefully under-developed, the dramatic ending felt tacked on, and the novel as a whole seems closer to draft form than it does a fully realised piece. Translated here by Jamie Chang.

I have been more into dystopianesque books recently - which is no surprise with how the world is. I really enjoyed this, it was well written with a compelling storyline and well-developed characters. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Such a different kind of book compared to Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982. I enjoyed the setting and spending time with different set of characters, but somehow it didn't quite all come together for me, specially the ending went in a very odd direction.

It's still a very interesting book, probably the closest comparison I can think of is The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada, people who like that book will definitely get a lot out of Saha.

Well if you read the blurb for Saha you'd be expecting a thrilling, action-packed, roller coaster ride of a book. Saha is none of those things but I found it compelling all the same.

We are given a country where there are 3 sections of population - the most privileged Ls, the middle/working class L2s and finally the people on the edge of society - the ones who live in the Saha Mansions. They are the dispossessed, the ones for whom life will be hard, a struggle and more than likely short. Presiding over all of them is a Council of Ministers - a shady, secretive group of men who make the rules.

In Saha we meet the various residents whose lives intersect with Jin-kyung and her brother, Do-kyung. The pair constantly try to better their lives and to understand what the world around them means; what future they have. Jin's answer is work and Do falls in love with a doctor, Su. However Su, in her quest to do something good for the vulnerable of Saha, falls foul of the authorities. Do's life is turned upside down when he wakes cold and afraid next to the body of Su. Has he killed her? He goes on the run.

Jin is devastated by this and begins to try to unravel what has happened but this means trying to find out how her world is run. We meet the various inhabitants of Saha and it is their stories and their part in the history of Saha that leads to Jin's final confrontation at the Council of Ministers.

As I said it is not a murder mystery in the conventional sense but it is oddly compelling. I found myself returning to it more often than I expected when I first began the book. It is bleak and it smacks of Orwell's 1984 but is none the worse for that.

I did not read Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 but it's going back on the list as this author intrigues me. If you like a good, perplexing dystopian novel then this is for you.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a early copy of the book in return for an honest review.

The book is a story of dystopian society where various characters try to find their meaning. The main protagonist finds herself in this society with her brother, and starts trying to understand its underlying tenets once her brother disappears, in parallel to several high profile murders that occur in the vicinity of our protagonist. The story is told via glimpses provided to the reader of this society over time, some in "present day", and some 30 years earlier. The society in question is a dystopian vision of corporate rule, with the typical underdog society trying to survive while serving the ruling class.

I personally liked the premise and the atmosphere the book created. The premise was, while not innovative, quite striking in its aggressiveness, and the compliance of the "serving class" was an interesting twist. The atmosphere of dejection and loss was striking and potent. I found the latter to be the most affecting part of the book - it felt visceral and made me feel deeply uncomfortable as the story unfolded.

That being said, it felt like a half baked novel. It reminded me of various novels, but just didn't meet the bar of any of them. It wasn't as vivid as Jeff VanderMeer's Borne. It wasn't as creatively aggressive as Margaret Atwood's Stone Mattress. It wasn't as psychologically complex as J.G. Ballard's High-Rise. It just didn't meet any bar: some characters were well developed and interesting, while others were just shadows; the pacing was either too fast or too slow (with weird digressions), the "thriller" part of the plot felt like an afterthought vs a major theme (despite what some reviews might suggest), and the societal structures that enabled the political construct to exist were explored only randomly (and in a way too rushed way in the final thrust of the book).

Worst of all - this felt like a halfbaked diatribe against capitalism and corporatism. Regardless of whether I'm for or against the ideology, the least I expect from an author writing about these topics is to understand the basics of how the economy works. This book read more like an uneducated teenager's rant, than a serious attempt at anything.

Overall, I just can't recommend it. It has some redeeming qualities, but the overall impression is so weak that I struggled to finish, and having read it, I doubt I'll remember anything a few months down the line. A shameful waste of a solid premise. Just sub-par execution.

This is a new book by Cho Nam-Joo, author of Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982. This has raised expectation amongs many readers,(hence some negative reviews) but I found the concept of the book much interesting. It might be confusing at bits but this dystopian tale tells us about the fates of a range of characters entrapped in a capitalist ssytem which is fully devoted to the expansion of inequity.

"Saha" was such a promising story, executed so... strangely. After "Kim JiYoung, Born 1982" I was expecting a novel that in a similar manner describes the reality of living in South Korea through characters' experiences.

What seemed like a mystery, set in sort of self-governing estate of Saha, took a strange turn. The extraordinary characters were plenty, and each of their story more peculiar than the other, and in the background lingered a medical research institution, taking advantage of the disempowered.

This story is quite dystopian, however not executed very fortunately, either by the author or the translator. The storylines seemed to lack logic at times, some chapters felt rushed, the ending quite underwhelming.

I hoped for much more.

When I saw I was accepted to read the ARC of Saha, I was super excited! I really enjoyed Kim JiYoung, Born 1982. The novel was written so well and detailed the experiences of living in South Korea as a woman in an engaging and informative way.

From the description of Saha and the authors immense talent as a writer, I thought I was in for a treat - a modern Orwellian read set in a favourite of mine, South Korea.

Unfortunately, the book didn’t live up to my expectations. I’m so disappointed given how much I loved Kim JiYoung, Born 1982!!

Saha just didn’t really go anywhere for me. The premise and the writing was good but the story fell flat. For an novel that marketed itself as a dystopian, murder-mystery, it just wasn’t very exciting…

I’m still really keen to read anything by Cho Nam-Joo, Saha just wasn’t for me!

"In this rigid land that outsiders could not access and no one wanted to leave, in this mysterious, reclusive state, the Saha Estates was the only secret passageway.

밖에 있는 누구도 나가려 하지 않는 비밀스럽고 폐쇄적인 국가에서 사하맨션은 유일한 통로 혹은 비상구 같은 곳이다."

Saha is Jamie Chang's 2022 translation of the 2019 Korean novel 사하맨션 ('Saha Mansion') by 조남주 (Cho Nam-Joo). This was the author's first novel published (*) since her best-selling and highly influential 2016 novel 82년생 김지영, translated into English, again by Jamie Chang, as Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982.
(* although the original manuscript of 사하맨션 predates 82년생 김지영)

Saha is set in a privatised city-state Town.

"The country that did not accept citizens without capital, skills, or expertise. The country with the most comprehensive semiconductor core technology, handheld devices, and displays, the greatest number of patents in the field of vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices, and the largest, most advanced biotech research center staffed with the brightest team. The only country to adopt a Council of seven co-ministers for its government. The country entirely run by seven ministers lording over the puppet Parliament, who never revealed their identities, much less engaged with the public. The country that did not belong to any international organization or regional union. The smallest, strangest country, which went by the name of Town."

Town, owned by a corporation, is safe but run under very strict laws, prosperous but only for its citizens (see below) and governed by a Council of seven Ministers. The Minister's identity is a closely guarded secret, indeed a former Councillor who was indiscreet as to the Council's dealings was himself executed.

The former residents of the area were not automatically granted citizenship in Town, and indeed there are officially two, and unofficially three, classes of people, based on economic utility:

"There were two classes of people in Town: L and L2. The ones with Town citizenship were referred to as Ls, or Citizens. These were people above a certain level of financial status who had knowledge or skills that Town required. Underage residents were recognized as Citizens only if they had parents or legal sponsors who were Citizens. L2 visas were issued to those without citizenship qualifications who had a clean criminal record. Applicants went through a brief interview and physical examination. They were referred to around Town as L2, and their visas were good for two years. Two years were all they got. They were welcome to look for work in all areas during those two years without fear of deportation, but most workplaces that sought L2 labor were construction sites, warehouses, cleaning companies, and other hard labor for little pay. When the two years were up, L2s had to go through another round of interviews and physical exams to extend their visas. Most L2s were natives who put themselves through the degradation because they didn’t have the qualifications to make Citizen and simply couldn’t leave their hometowns. When the L2s had children they couldn’t afford to raise, those children became L2s as well.

Jin-kyung wasn’t even an L2, but a Saha—she wasn’t anyone or anything deserving of a category. Saha was what they were called even if they didn’t live in Saha Estates, which Jin-kyung assumed the name came from. The term seemed to say, This is as far as you get."

Saha is an abandoned large blocks of flats which is now home to a community of those on the society's fringes, some L2s but also those who have lost even their L2 visa but don't want to leave the area for the mainland, those shunned by others due to their sexuality or disability, the young and orphaned and the very old. Saha receives only basic services from Town, and is run by an informal residents' association, and whenever trouble strikes in Town, the police's first thought is to round up those in Saha for questioning.

The author explained in an interview that her inspiration for the Saha came from two sources:

1) the Sakha region of Russia, from which the name is adapted, a particularly remote and inhospitable (although inhabited) area of the country, subject to extreme temperature swings.

and more directly, although on a much smaller scale:

2) the former Kowloon Walled City, itself a largely self-governed enclave in a city state, which Wikipedia describes as:

"An ungoverned and densely populated de jure Chinese enclave within the boundaries of Kowloon City, British Hong Kong. Originally a Chinese military fort, the walled city became an enclave after the New Territories were leased to the United Kingdom by China in 1898. Its population increased dramatically following the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. By 1990, the walled city contained 50,000 residents within its 2.6-hectare (6.4-acre) borders. From the 1950s to the 1970s, it was controlled by local triads and had high rates of prostitution, gambling, and drug abuse."

The novel's main story focuses on Jin-kyung and her younger brother Do-Kyoung (both around 30).

"The sight of her brother covered in blood and shivering brought to mind the old Estates over in Town. Jin-kyung thought of the small Town-country somewhere down south that had become independent decades ago. The country that built a tall, impenetrable wall between it and the rest of the world. And the Saha Estates was a secluded island within the isolated country. Where in the world could they find a more perfect hideout?"

The novel opens with Do-kyung waking up, disorientated, in a car, to find his fellow passenger, Su, his girlfriend, lifeless, beside him. He flees the scene, and the police launch a murder hunt with Do-Kyoung the prime suspect. Su was a fully-fledged L from Town, a paediatrician, but who offered her services for free to the families of Saha, and, having fallen for Do-kyung, did the unthinkable for a Citizen and moved into the building.

And while Jin-kyung is convinced of her brother's innocence - he loved Su and they were in a relationship whereas the police, unable to conceive of a Citizen and a Saha being together, label him a stalker and accuse him of murder as well as sexual assault - she does harbour a dark secret of her own. As the quote above hints, the siblings took the unusual step of moving from the mainland into Town (and Saha) because of an incident in their former home, when Do-kyung took bloody and murderous revenge on an exploitive boss that he blamed for the suicide of their mother.

But the novel also features the stories of many other residents of Saha, including some from 30 years previously, giving insight into the circumstances that brought them there, which is the more social-commentary aspect to the novel, including a rather odd side-story about one character.

Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982 read at times almost like an academic study, complete with footnotes (albeit there was an explanation for this within the novel's closing pages) and she is generally known for a rather forensic style. In the interview linked above she explained that for her the theme of the novel is more important than the enjoyment of the story, or the literary form:

그는 또 이야기 재미나 형식적 완성도, 문학 자체의 예술적 성취보다는 주제의식 전달에 중점을 둔다고 밝혔다

"내가 가진 질문을 세상 사람들에게 하고 싶어요. 다른 사람들도 이런 질문을 가졌는지 궁금한 것 같고, 그게 내가 소설을 쓰도록 만들어요. 소설의 형식, 장르에 대한 생각, 이 소설이 어떻게 읽힐지, 기술적으로 어떻게 진행할까 하는 생각보다 어떤 이야기를 전하고 싶은지가 저에게 우선이에요. 저는 읽히는 재미보다는 어떤 이야기를 전할 것인가에 중점을 두고 소설을 쓰는 작가인 것 같아요."

Although she comments later that this novel was less logically planned and the story grew more organically.

And if anything this less planned nature is the main issue here - to me the novel couldn't decide if this was a story about Jin-Kyung's quest to exonerate her brother, or more a collection of stories illustrating the author's dystopian view of modern society. It seems mainly the latter until in the novel's closing quarter it takes on a more thrillerish aspect (which was less satisfying for me) and we discover a secret at Town's heart.

Overall, I'm afraid this was a disappointment against the author/translator's previous work. But the length of my review is testament to the thoughts it provoked so 3 stars.