If sadness had a color, what would that be? // "Lemon" by Korean Novelist Yeo-sun Kwon

“If sadness had a color, what would that be? To the novelist Yeo-sun Kwon, it is yellow…"

In the summer of the 2002, when Korea is abuzz with the Korea-Japan FIFA World Cup, a beautiful nineteen-year-old girl named Hae-on is murdered in what would become known as the ‘High School Beauty Murder’. There are two suspects: a rich boy Shin Jeongjun, whose car Hae-on was last seen in, and a working class delivery boy, Han Manu, who witnesses Hae-on in the passenger seat of Jeongjun’s car just a few hours before her death. 

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The novel begins with a scene in which Hae-on’s younger sister, Da-on, imagines a police detective interrogating Han Manu. When no evidence can be pinned on Manu and Jeongjun’s alibi turns out to be solid, the identity of the murderer is left unsolved. The case remains a mystery for years, throwing those surrounding the event into turmoil, especially Da-on, who is unable to move on with her life following her sister’s disappearance and murder. ...read more