The Investigation – Jung-Myung Lee

Set in the latter years of World War II, the book is about the murder of a particularly feared guard and the investigation into the death. Sugiyama, the murdered guard, is known as a brute and feared by inmates and guards alike. A young Japanese guard, Yuichi Watanabe, is asked to undertake the investigation into the murder and at first it seems straightforward enough with a prominent prisoner confessing. However the more Watanabe investigates, the more fascinating information comes to the fore including information that casts a new light on the murder victim. As the story progresses, one realizes that it revolves around the literary figure Yun Dong-Ju and his poetry that Watanabe believes can cast light into the darkest corners of a heart.

It is easy to classify ‘The Investigation’ as a crime-thriller and leave it at that. However, the story is multi-layered exploring what it was to be Korean at the time of Japanese occupation, especially when one realizes that in the eyes of the Japanese overlords, to be Korean was criminal in itself. A stratified read the novel explores the Korean-Japanese relationship and the effect of literature on the human psyche and its ultimate consequences, if any.

Shelly Ma