By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Celebrated author Gong Ji-young has released a new novel, ``The Crucible'' whose title was taken from Arthur Miller's eponymous play, based on the real events leading up to ``witch trials'' in the small puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.
Her new novel, which was first posted on Daum, the Internet portal site, from the end of last year for six months, also deals with an actual incident that happened at Gwangju Inhwa School, a special school for deaf and dumb students, in which educational workers, including the school principal, continuously sexually abused their disabled students in 2005.
Set in Mujin, a fictional historical city where progressive and conservative values are in conflict, the book revolves around a school for deaf children who fall prey to collective sexual violence.
The city frequently blanketed with fog is portrayed as a region that was once the Mecca of the democracy movement, but is now stricken with reckless nightlife and corruption.
Kang In-ho, a teacher, moves into the city after landing a job at the school with the help of his wife's friend, leaving his family ― his wife and daughter ― behind in Seoul.
He meets Seo Yu-jin, his university senior now living in Mujin, who helps him settle down and adapt himself to the new environment.
On his first day at the new school, he encounters a weird and doubtful accident in which a boy from the school is killed in a train accident, and hears about a girl who jumps off a cliff to her death nearby the school.
The principal, a son of the founder, asks him to give money in return for giving him a job under the name of the ``school development fund,'' and Kang has to accept this demand because he doesn't have a job after quitting teaching several years ago and failing in business.