By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
Last week, Hwang Sok-yong topped the list in an online survey asking readers which leading Korean writer they thought should be recommended for the Nobel Prize in literature. Out of about 58,000 respondents, Hwang won nearly 20,000 of the votes. Other prominent novelists included Cho Se-hui in second place with Lee Mun-yeol coming in third.
It's been a feat for the 64-year-old writer, whose first breakthrough came in the 1970s with the grand saga ``Jang Gil-san,'' and proves he can still remain in touch with a new generation of readers despite a brief gap that was forced upon him after his illegal visit to North Korea in 1989. To avoid imprisonment, he spent the next four years in Germany before returning home in 1993. He was, however, jailed upon his return for having violated the National Security Law. Released with a pardon in 1998, his 2000 comeback novel ``The Old Garden'' became an immediate bestseller and was made into the namesake film by director Im Sang-soo. ``The Guest'' and ``Simcheong'' followed, both again scooping up materials from the painful past of Korea.
Apparently he did not want to stop there. Hwang, who has been staying in cosmopolitan European cities such as Paris and London during the last four years, this month put out a novel that will further cement his reputation as a keen observer of the times and a natural-born storyteller.