- Page
- 288
- Publication Date
- August 8, 2018
- ISBN
- 9788932034546
Everything looked too good on the surface.
A book about perfect ghosts who live together in a strange way in an ultramodern
wasteland covered in dust.
Jeong Jiyong, the son and heir of the charismatic head of the Oson conglomerate, Jeong Daecheol, is widely regarded as an idiot. Though Jiyong appears decent, there's something cunning about him. He marries Choi Yeongju—a woman blessed with beauty, a prestigious education, and a powerful family background. Their marriage is part of a calculated plan devised by Jiyong’s father, President Jeong, and Yeongju’s mother, Professor Choi.
The newlyweds live in a suite at “Maison de Rêve,” a smart apartment complex built by Oson in the city of L, the outskirts of Seoul, and perfectly controlled by a state-of-the-art system and monitored by 999 CCTV cameras. Maison de Rêve serves as both a testing ground for President Jeong’s private ambition to engineer a highly balanced society—by bringing together people from various social classes under strict control—and a prototype residential facility that integrates Oson’s future urban plans.
Jiyong, who lives in a 7,000-square-foot penthouse, has a chance encounter in the lobby with Yi Hana, an internet broadcast jockey who lives in a 200-square foot one-room apartment in the same building. Hana is the complete opposite of Yeongju, who resembles an elegant queen. Jiyong becomes deeply intrigued by Hana, who responds instantly to everything he says and does(“I want to eat you, Hana,” he tells her at one point). By the time Yeongju becomes pregnant with Jiyong’s child, he and Hana are effectively in a de facto marriage of their own. Aware of the affair, Yeongju grows increasingly discontent(“Why did I ever get married in the first place?” she exclaims). She begins watching him closely.
What drives this story—resembling a scandalous rumor whispered through group chats—is the raw reality revealed through its characters. N.E.W. is a tragedy told in deceptively gentle sentences. You have a nightmare. You wake up. But you’re still in the nightmare.