A Korean woman finds herself without language at the same time that her lecturer slowly loses his eyesight. It's an unusual premise for a novel, but this internationally renowned author somehow makes it not just work but be stunning. 

One day, in the midst of teaching a literature class, a woman finds herself unable to speak; she literally has no words. Scarily this has happened to her before: at age 16, she’d lost language, and though she was taken to a psychiatrist and prescribed medication, she saw no change until a lesson in French—a foreign language—prompted her to utilise speech once again.

This time, unlike before, “the silence that has now returned after a period of twenty years is neither warm, nor dense, nor bright. If that original silence had been similar to that which exists before birth, this new silence is more like that which follows death.”

Of course, the woman has experienced more life events. She has married and divorced; her mother has recently died, and she has lost custody of her son. This aphasia appears to be partially at least stress induced, however much our narrator vehemently denies it.

She begins taking a class in Ancient Greek; perhaps she’ll be able to find language again, as she did as a teenager. But things aren't quite so simple now.

The woman’s story alternates with that of her Greek teacher, who, slowly and steadily losing his sight for almost two decades, is now nearly blind. He, too, was born in Korea but moved to Germany with his family as a child and only returned to his native country and native tongue as an adult.

Both these characters battling their decline in health are achingly alone and feel disconnected from the world around them. Yet, over time, they do find a kind of connection with each other.

The star of the book is Han’s exploration of the limitations of her characters, both linguistic and visual, which makes the novel so profoundly moving. She is meticulous in her descriptive yet beautifully flowing prose, how we often cut ourselves off from the world even as we yearn for the confirmations that connectivity brings.

Greek Lessons is ultimately an emotion stirring exploration of language, memory, and what it is to be human. 4⭐

This is a beautifully tender piece of writing but it doesn't have the glorious strangeness, richness and intensity of Kang's The Vegetarian.

In this book we change perspective between two characters: a Greek teacher that is losing his sight and a woman, one of his students who is no longer speaking.
we follow them in their exploration of languages and communication, the impact these have in how we express ourselves and how we find ourselves into the world.

Kang's writing manages to make the reader feel distanced from the character and yet at the same time manages to be touching and tender.

The discourse mainly focuses on language and its connection with the world around us. A quick read still sometimes felt like something was missing, but perhaps
that is exactly the point.

A strange little book this that will no doubt find some who love it .I personally found it hard going and wandered that since so much of the concept is language based how much it lost in translation .The novel is translated from the original Korean and is set in a Korean language school where the adult pupils are learning Ancient Greek .Knowing nothing of either language myself there were sections that I didn’t understand .Both languages use different writing and there was a few sections when the way the language was written on the page was significant
Having said that the majority of the book does work and there are some very moving sections .The apology after she writes the poem in Ancient Greek is so moving it had me in tears
the book does have a Sad melancholic feel to it
The comparison between Loosing language by emigrating and loosing the ability to speak whilst still understanding and hearing was interesting
I read a copy of the book on NetGalley uk the book is published in the uk 27th April 2023 by Penguin General uk
This review will be published on Goodreads ,NetGalley uk and my book blog BionicSarahsbooks.Wordpress.Com

A deeply rich and beautiful book following the lives of two adults and the trauma they've lived through and still face today. This was so interesting, I was really intrigued into the backstory of the characters and their conditions, I found this really heart-warming yet very sad. Although I wish there was a clearer ending and I was confused in parts I did really enjoy this.

'Greek Lessons' presents another conspicuous storytelling by Han Kang. The story follows a woman who has lost her voice, and an Ancient Greek teacher who is losing his sight, as they navigate their lives left asunder by the lost of loved ones. Meditating on language, both the dead and alive, 'Greek Lessons' gives a hypnotic exploration of what it feels to live as though you are disconnected from the world, to struggle finding solace even in words. Only silence and the senses offer a mediation: a new form of intimacy. Deborah Smith and Emily Yan Won's translation, with the help of Kim Suyeong who translated the Ancient Greek parts, lulls you in with their enrapturing and almost infatuating prose, painting incandescent images of the minute lives in Seoul.

If you enjoyed Han Kang's other work, this is another one to indulge in. Bonus if you are familiar with Borges' work too.

(Review on Waterstones under 'Phuong Anh')

Unfortunately this book was not for me. I tried to read the whole thing, as I have loved previous books by the author, bit absolutely could not get into this one.

Really enjoyed this. A philosophical and spiritual meditation on language and living that is ultimately hopeful and quite beautiful. Beautiful writing too, clever at a craft level and with some passages reading like pure poetry.

Very grateful to the publisher and Netgalley for the reading copy! Full review on Instagram linked below.

I had such high hopes for this - I usually love when language learning is incorporated into fiction - but sadly I found this narrative to be way too abstract and inaccessible for my own reading sensibilities.

This book is a beautiful, yet very detached story of two people who are limited in their relationship with language. I enjoyed the detached nature of it, as it allowed for really touching descriptions and I was able to see exactly what the characters were feeling. The mix of perspectives, combined with the introduction of Ancient Greek made for a very intriguing read, especially because I’ve studied the language myself. While reading this book, I went out and bought other books of Kangs, simply because I enjoyed the style of writing so much. I don’t know what I expected with the ending, but it certainly wasn’t what actually happened, nonetheless it was very well done. Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy.

A stunning novel focusing on linguistics and philosophy and exploring the wonders of language as well as the limitations it imposes on the human experience. It is a story of loss - loss of language, loss of sight, loss of direction, loss of identity at times, as well as loss of loved ones (albeit in different ways). This had me highlighting paragraph after paragraph. It was stunning to see an exploration of a lust for life revolving around a dead language.
It lost some of its charm for bit around the last 15%, but I loved it nonetheless.

A woman suddenly loses her voice and a man slowly loses his sight. The gifts of sound and vision removed these two people come together in this poetic novel. Along the way we learn about Greek language philosophy with references to Plato and Greek letters and language. There is a long beautiful description towards the end of the novel involving a trapped bird where the two characters become close and the metaphor of entrapment that the loss of a sense brings is clear.

I wasn’t familiar with Han Kang’s work but I have since read that she is a poet and philosopher as well as a novelist which is clear when reading this intriguing book.

Greek Lessons is my introduction to the writing of Han Kang, I was struck by this intimate and contemplative story and will be seeking out more of her writing.

The novel is a slow moving exploration of the inner lives of a teacher of Ancient Greek who is losing his vision and a woman who is presently mute. It is not so much about the plot, but of each characters’ observations, experiences and how they connect.

On a sentence to sentence level, Greek Lessons was beautiful. It was poignant, wistful and melancholy.

Greek Lessons will best suit a careful reader, who loves literary fiction and has a quiet, cosy place to read and contemplate.

Pick up this book up if: you love books about language, introspection, grief

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I think Greek Lessons sits somewhere between The Vegetarian and Human Acts for me. It attempted the very internal, character study of The Vegetarian but lacked the same lyrical and hypnotic nature that made The Vegetarian so gripping. It had a more clear narrative flow like Human Acts but the two main character voices weren't very easy to differentiate at points and there wasn't a strong enough plot or structure to make it overly engaging.
It's always hard to tell with works like this how much stylistically gets lost in translation but seeing as Deborah Smith has been Han Kang's translator for all of her works I think it is more likely that this particular one of her's simply didn't grab me like her others.

"I realized for the first time that falling in love is like being haunted"

3.5 Stars

A story that explores the lives of two individuals, one who is intermittently unable to speak and one whose eyesight is failing, who are connected through Ancient Greek language lessons.

The story follows the usual style and flow of Han Kang's other novels. Heavy in description and a flow that can become abstract at times, it can become disorientating however the story continues to pique curiosity.

It is not a plot that has loud moments and turns but instead is a rather closed and quiet exploration of the effects of language on love and other emotions. It can be said that these themes and explorations take over the characters, leaving the reader with an on and off connection to the characters.

Thank you to Penguin General UK and Netgalley for an eARC, I am voluntarily leaving a review.

I loved this very much!! It was beautiful, poignant, and slow-paced in its thoughtful flow. I will be raving about it for a long time. It was like lakewater to the fiery narrative of The Vegetarian.

You know a novel’s bad when, after reading it, you have to go back to the book’s ad copy to find out what the damn thing was meant to be about!

Apparently it’s about the relationship between a woman who’s lost her voice/mother/son and is a student in a Greek language class and the class’s teacher who’s upset about having grown up in both Germany and Korea and is losing his sight.

I got some of that from reading this but the voices are so indistinct that I thought both “characters” mentioned above were the same person!

There’s no discernible story - the characters interact, I guess, but nothing seems to happen or go anywhere. It feels allegorical - something about communication maybe? - but comes off as pointless.

Han Kang’s previous novel The Vegetarian, which wasn’t bad, seems to have been a flash in the pan because I’ve tried her other books and they were all terrible, especially this one. It’s early doors still but I’m gonna put Greek Lessons forward for one of 2023’s worst novels!

For better, or for worse, Han Kang remains a singularly unique author for me. From experimentation with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person, gorgeous prose, crystalline imagery, poignant intimacy, and a focus on misunderstanding. I won't claim to have understood every aspect, or appreciated the nuance of every sentence of Greek Lessons, but there is a mesmerising quality to Kang (and Smith's translation) that makes Han Kang one of my favourite authors, despite having never loved one of her books.

Thank you to Penguin for an ARC copy, via Netgalley.

Loss (of voice and sight and more) and loneliness and sadness in a well written short book. Not as powerful as The Vegetarian.

In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard.

She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight.

Greek Lessons is a quiet, powerful book about two people who have lost everyone they loved - and are now losing their place in the world.

Although this ultimately is a book about language, language is something used sparsely in this book. A little too sparsely for me. The two main characters remain nameless, and even though we are following their innermost thoughts, we never really get to know them.

Greek Lessons looks at the growing relationship between two characters, a woman who has lost her ability to speak and her lecturer who is losing his sight.

Kang's writing is poetic and great as ever but it's very detached in this case. For the novel this makes sense, after all the characters themselves are detached from things and the book is exploring language and communication but it makes it harder to feel much attachment to them.

For me it wasn't a particular page turner but it's a good book if you fancy something that will make you think.