The narrator of Kim Hye-jin’s Concerning My Daughter believes that “some things aren’t spoken out loud.” As she ages, she doesn’t want to discuss the lack of facilities willing to care for the elderly. And as a mother, she doesn’t want to talk about her adult daughter, who doesn’t have stable employment and is involved in a long-term relationship with a woman. She keeps quiet, ignoring the messiness of reality and guarding these thoughts in her head.
But her silence can only be maintained for so long, and she contemplates it during a quiet moment at church.
All I did was sit here in this spot where I could look up at the altar, run my hands over these words that I feared others might hear, and let the silence grow. Things I want to say, must say, cannot say, must not say – I have no confidence in any of these words. Whom could I possibly go to with these words? Who’s there to listen, anyway?

The slim novel covers a breadth of contemporary concerns: family relationships, elder care, and LGBTQ issues. The author was awarded the Shin Dong-yup Prize for Literature in 2018, and translator Jamie Chang is known for her translation of Cho Nam-joo’s Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982. It has been a particularly exciting time for translations from South Korea, with releases such as The Picture Bride and The Old Woman with the Knife, and Cursed Bunny and Love in the Big City being shortlisted for this year’s International Booker Prize.
Considering My Daughter centers the voices of women from different generations as they attempt to understand each other. In the opening scene, Kim depicts a fraught conversation between mother and daughter at a local noodle restaurant. The mother owns the house that she shared with her late husband and supplements her rental income by working as a caregiver at a nursing facility. Her daughter who now goes by the name “Green” works as an itinerant lecturer, and without a steady job, she is ineligible for a loan or public housing. After this discussion about their financial situation, she agrees to have her daughter move back home.
However, Green invites her partner Lane to join them, and once they move in, the mother cannot deny reality any longer. She develops a habit of retreating to her bedroom early in the evenings to avoid seeing them together, and Green keeps busy at the university most of the time. Still, Green and Lane breathe life back into the house with their delicious home-cooked meals, bustling gatherings of friends, and late-night conversations. From her room, the mother overhears them talking at the end of a long day.
My daughter’s voice is hot and Lane’s voice is just cool enough. Cool air sinks, warm air rises. The two arcs make a circle. Mixing the two would make the perfect temperature.
The contrast between speaking up and remaining silent is evident throughout the novel. Green speaks out against injustice while her mother prefers to keep quiet and not get involved in other people’s problems. Although their generational differences seem insurmountable, gradual change can be observed as they confront challenges at their workplaces. At the nursing home, cost-cutting measures loom, and the mother struggles to provide the level of care her elderly dementia patient deserves. At the university, with LGBTQ colleagues unfairly dismissed, Green joins the fight against their discriminatory practices. Although mother disagrees, as she takes in the scene at the protest, she reflects on her life and the passage of time.
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