The Rumor:

A Story about the Story of Others

Issued by Areumbit Park

Written by Areumbit Park

Translated by Marla Koch

Proofread by Sean Mullan

Designed by Yeoleum Yun

Published in 2023

Language: German and Korean

Size: 148*210mm

Pages: 176

Type of binding: Thread binding

This is an autobiographical novel based on a diary I wrote during my residence in Germany. The book essentially consists of three parts: a chapter on ‘being a stranger’, a chapter on writing as art and archiving, and a chapter on the translation process.

To present translation as an open process, the conversations were insulted between author and translator that took place during the translation process - instead of ending the book with a single voice. Through the conversation between the two persons, the differences between the two languages and cultures are revealed, and these differences make it possible respectively to reflect on each language and culture. The book is in the form of a collection of short stories but has a non-linear time structure in which each piece flows together. To apply the non-linear time feature of the text, the three parts were visualized as a drawing on the cover and red dots inside. Readers can fold the transparent wing cover and check the timeline (touch/past-write/present-tell/now) of the text they are reading through the red dot in the text.

To acknowledge the position of the translator and the author alike, the same text has been processed into two books with different titles and designs, in Korean and German. At the end of the book is a translation of each book in images. The foreign language was integrated as an illegible image, which offers the possibility of a different way of reading.