Wiener Zeitung / February 18, 2019

Die 1992 geborene Autorin Elisa Shua Dusapin wuchs mit einem französischen Vater und einer südkoreanischen Mutter in Paris, Seoul und Porrentruy (CH) auf. In ihrem ersten Roman "Ein Winter in Sokcho" treffen in einer südkoreanischen Pension nahe der nordkoreanischen Grenze der französische Comiczeichner Yan Kerrand - etwa 50 Jahre alt - und die 23-jährige Ich-Erzählerin zusammen. Sie ist seit einem Monat in der vernachlässigten Einrichtung Mädchen für alles. In diesem eiskalten Winter sind kaum Gäste gekommen, daher hat sie viel Zeit, sich mit dem Franzosen zu unterhalten. Auf dem Fischmarkt, wo ihre Mutter arbeitet, bietet sie als Halbfranzösin immer noch "Anlass für Gerede"; ihren französischen Vater hat sie nie kennengelernt.     Mit dem französischen Künstler eröffnen sich ihr nun ganz andere Gespräche, und der Traum, in Frankreich leben zu können, rückt in Reichweite. Yan Kerrand sucht hingegen in der Abgeschiedenheit Ruhe und Frieden. Davon gibt es hier genügend: Warten, Schweigen und Leere prägen diesen Kurzroman, in dem es weniger um die Liebesgeschichte als um Stimmungsbilder geht, die sich wie zarte Tuschezeichnungen über die wenigen Seiten verteilen.    

Cheek magazine / October 12, 2016

Source: http://cheekmagazine.fr/culture/elisa-shua-dusapin-rentree-litteraire/

PopMatters / July 09, 2021

Aslender and carefully crafted work of fiction, Winter in Sokcho could easily be read in an afternoon but warrants more dedicated attention. The story is set in the tourist town of Sokcho, about 160 kilometers from Seoul and 60 kilometers from the North Korean border. With its beaches, hot springs, and abundant seafood, Sokcho is a popular summer destination. Winter, however, is cold and bleak, and this somber atmosphere permeates the narrative. The unnamed protagonist works at a rundown guest house where she half-heartedly goes about greeting and registering guests, cooking, and cleaning rooms. That she remains unnamed alludes to her evasive nature. Not only does she reveal little about herself, but she is also uncertain about the identity she wants to embrace.

Happy Mag / July 21, 2021

Fancy a holiday on the Korean peninsula? Elisa Shua Dusapin takes you to the heart of Sokcho, a forgotten resort town, in her tense, beguiling debut. Resort towns can’t escape melancholy. The lifeblood of these places is transient, and in the winter, most are all but empty. But what if this life is all you’ve ever known? This is the multidimensional image presented by Elisa Shua Dusapin in her debut novel, Winter in Sokcho (Scribe).

CBD News / July 24, 2021

By Rhonda Dredge Winter in Sokcho is set on the border between North and South Korea, a desolate chilly place where time rests heavily on the town and its inhabitants. The narrator of the novel works in a tired guesthouse as a receptionist with just two guests in residence. One guest is in bandages after extensive cosmetic surgery and the other is a cartoonist. The cartoonist, an offhand 50-year-old Frenchman, offers hope to the narrator, a young woman whose mother is a fishmonger. But the relationship between the underemployed receptionist and the European artist is a difficult one. Kerrand, the cartoonist, has come to Sokcho to find a story. Together, they visit sites in no man’s land to peer across the border at North Korea but generally they fail to develop the rapport the narrator craves. The cartoonist needs to find an image he can insert into the heroic adventures of his character and appears to be blind to her attentions.

The Canberra Times / August 21, 2021

Winter in Sokcho, by Elisa Shua Dusapin. Scribe, $22.99. This slim, visceral and unnerving book begins when a foreigner checks into a guesthouse in the port city of Sokcho, South Korea. The stranger is Yan Kerrand, a French cartoonist, who comes to the seaside resort, now deserted in the icy winter, looking for inspiration. He's greeted by the unnamed narrator, a young woman and a Seoul university graduate, who cooks in the guesthouse. She has returned to her hometown to be near her mother again.

The New York Times / September 17, 2021

This year’s fiction longlist includes Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, a 2020 nominee in the poetry category, as well as Richard Powers, who also made the Booker Prize shortlist this week.

pw / September 17, 2021

The National Book Foundation has announced the 2021 National Book Award longlists. Five finalists in each of the five categories—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature, and young people's literature—will be named on October 5. The winner will be announced during the awards ceremony on November 17, which will once again be held in-person at Cipriani Wall Street in New York.

ABC News / September 16, 2021

NEW YORK -- Stories ranging from retellings of the myths of Paul Bunyan and of Hans Christian Andersen's “The Snow Queen” to a look back at the Black Panther Party are among the 10 nominees on the longlist for the National Book Award for young people's literature. On Wednesday, the National Book Foundation also announced the longlist for translated books, with fiction originating from Syria, Chile and South Korea among other countries. The French-language author Maryse Conde, often mentioned as a possible Nobel Prize candidate, received her first National Book Award nomination, at age 84, for her novel “Waiting for the Waters to Rise." Richard Philcox was the translator.

MPR News / September 16, 2021

Updated September 16, 2021 at 10:15 AM ET Over the next few days, we'll be finding out which books made the longlists for this year's National Book Awards — beginning Wednesday morning with Young People's Literature and finishing up Friday with Fiction. Check back with us throughout the week as we post each list to see who's in the running and find links to our coverage. Finalists will be announced Oct. 5, and we're set to find out the winners Nov. 17 during a live ceremony at a New York City venue — a return to form after last year's pandemic-induced virtual broadcast. But there will be virtual elements, and for those who can't make it to New York, the event will still be streaming live.