Like so many South Koreans of a certain age, Michael ByungJu Kim (MBA 1990) lives in a country where the past lingers, ever-present, beneath a gleaming, high-rise surface. On a Sunday afternoon in late November, Kim, 60, climbs the pathways crisscrossing Namsan, the 269-acre park rising high above Seoul. Soft yellow ginkgo leaves carpet the ground.
A man, decked out in a white tracksuit and bucket hat, strolls by with an enormous Afghan hound. Kim has walked here with his mother, who hid in a cave somewhere on the mountain with her mother and three siblings during the Korean War. A bomb blast—friendly fire from US troops—killed everyone except Kim’s mother and her younger brother.
The story is included in Offerings, Kim’s 2020 bestseller. In October 2023, news broke that filming of the book would begin in fall 2024, backed by Anonymous Content, the US production company behind Spotlight and The Revenant, and Korea’s Anthology Studios. Deeply personal and highly autobiographical, Offerings tells the story of Dae Joon, who comes to the United States from Seoul at age 12 and returns to his home country in his late 20s, MBA in hand, to help underwrite the sovereign bond offering that will save South Korea from financial ruin.
It’s a novel of many elements, somehow managing to mingle Korean folktales with scenes of high-stakes financial negotiation. It’s the story of grappling with a relationship to two countries (Dae Joon also goes by the very Western name of Shane) while managing the weight of a father’s expectations. It’s about navigating situations that challenge loyalties and conscience. And, finally, Offerings is also a love story of two people finding each other and figuring out where they belong in the world.
It took Kim nearly 20 years to write.
“My mother still has shrapnel in her stomach,” he says. “I’ve taken this walk with her to see if we can figure out where they hid. She’s kind of curious, but I also…
Read the full article here
