While the cause green is increasingly attracting the attention popular, the artist Katie Paterson, which is recognized to blend the technology with the environment in his creations, has embarked on a project this long in a decade. Thus, in 2014, a thousand trees have been planted in the heart of the forest Nordmarka north of Oslo, in Norway. Since then, each year, an author is invited to write an original story based on the themes of imagination and time, and to submit his manuscript to the Future Library («library of the future»), that should keep away any curiosity until 2114. To this date only, the trees will be felled to print all of these manuscripts and to reveal to the world.
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Five years after the launch of this project, the Future Library has invited Han Kang to contribute to it in turn. On may 25, during a ceremony which took place in the Norwegian forest, the novelist has wrapped up his manuscript in a white cloth, a symbol of birth and of death in South Korea, it has dragged on the advance through the woods, before handing over to Katie Paterson. «It is as if we had celebrated the wedding of my manuscript with this forest. Or created a lullaby for a sleep over a century, moving the earth on its passage, she commented. Now, it is time to say goodbye».
By joining Margaret Atwood (2014), David Mitchell (2015), Sjón (2016), and Elif Shafak (2017), Han Kang becomes the second wife of the selection and its first participant from asia. She had won the recognition of the public and its peers in 2007 with The Veggie , now considered a classic of the literature of the south Korean and rewarded, among others, the Booker prize in 2016. For the first time this year, the prize was awarded jointly to the translator of the novel, Deborah Smith, who had learned Korean just three years before beginning his career.
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Only information disclosed in this manuscript a secret, its title: Dear Son, My Beloved («My son, my beloved» in French). In the meantime 2114, it will join the previous four on the top floor of the library Deichman, in a piece named «Silent Room», in which the public opening is scheduled for this year. If the manuscripts submitted to the Future Library will be exposed to the view of visitors, no one will be able to consult with them before the next century. «Everything leads us to believe that we are doomed,» commented Mitchell during the presentation of his book. This initiative is a sign of hope, she promises that we will be there, that there will be trees, there will be books, and readers, and a civilization.»
