Korean author Ewhan Kim’s The Black Orb is his 12th novel but his first to be translated into English (by Sean Lin Halbert. It follows Jeong-Su, a self-centred guy in his thirties who is confronted at the start of the book with a two-metre black orb that eats his neighbour, then slowly comes after him.
That premise is played straight and the author takes the reader on a flight of fancy that travels with Jeong-Su as he seeks to find his parents to warn them, all the while witnessing the collapse of society around him as the black orb multiplies, countless orbs consuming everyone they come into contact with.
The quick descent into panic and anarchy is one of the themes Ewhan examines here, and that idea that humans are just a hair’s breadth away from chaos at any time pervades the pages with a chilling authenticity.
The novel also works on an allegorical level, the orb obviously representing a general doom and hopelessness that stalks modern society, even being referred to as ‘the orb of despair’ in the narrative.
With Jeong-Su at its morally ambivalent centre, the novel looks at the balance between societal connection and individual self-preservation, but does so with pitch-black humour and absurdist wit. A fascinating examination of the pressures of modern society, seen through a unique lens.
Doug Johnstone is an author and journalist.
