The Investigation

Jung-Myung Lee's extraordinary THE INVESTIGATION, translated by Chi-Young Kim, is set in a period of Korean history that isn't widely known in the West. In 1944, with the region still under Japanese rule, Korean inmates of Fukuoka prison are not allowed to use their own language. A young guard is ordered to find the killer of another guard and stumbles on a sinister conspiracy - and the work of a Korean poet who writes clandestine verses of rare beauty. Inspired by the work of Yun Dong-ju, the dissident Korean writer who died in Fukuoka in 1945, this is a heart-wrenching novel with many unexpected twists.Sunday Times

In Jung-Myung Lee's The Investigation, the equally merciless Japanese occupation of Korea drives a Second World War mystery set in Fukuoka prison. A forbidden passion for poetry binds the three protagonists: the jailed Korean bard Yun Dong-ju, whose life inspired the novel; the outwardly tough guard Sugiyama, and Yuichi, the bookish Japanese narrator. Lee's story celebrates the power of poetry, of books and of reading, to lend us a "sixth sense" that can heal and transform even in the harshest times . . . this Korean bestseller deserves to fly across our own prison walls.Independent

Not just a whodunnit that provides the relief of a clear resolution. The book also tells the story of Japan's wartime history and is inspired by the real-life jailed Korean poet and dissident Yun Dong-ju, whose work is quoted throughout . . . a gripping book.Financial Times

I was gripped by The Investigation. It came at me from nowhere and consumed me. It's a thriller, and a war story, and so much more besides. I tore through the last 100 pages, my heart literally racing at times. An intense, captivating achievement, inspired by realityMatt Haig, author of The Humans and The Radleys