If you have ever been a daughter, a son, a husband or a mother, Please Look After Mom is a revelation - one that will bring tears to your eyes.

This is a mystery of one mother that reveals itself to be the mystery of all our mothers: about her triumphs and disappointments and about who she is on her own terms, separate from who she is to her family. Please Look After Mother has sold almost 1. Told by the alternating voices of Mom's daughter, son, her husband and, in the shattering conclusion, by Mom herself, the novel pieces together, Rashomon-style, a life that appears ordinary but is anything but. I chose to read Kyung-Sook Shin's novel, Please Look After Mother, for the South Korea stop on my Around the World in 80 Books challenge. Please Look After Mom is the story of a mothers disappearance after being separated from her husband at a crowded Seoul subway station. Soon a larger question emerges: do they really know the woman they called Mom? As they argue over the 'Missing' flyers they are posting throughout the city - how large of a reward to offer, the best way to phrase the text - they realize that none of them have a recent photograph of Mom. Please stop yelling at me and stroke my head please be on my side, whether I’m right or wrong (pg. As the narrator points out, The word ‘Mom’ is familiar and it hides a plea: Please look after me. When sixty-nine year old So-nyo is separated from her husband among the crowds of the Seoul subway station, and vanishes, their children are consumed with loud recriminations, and are awash in sorrow and guilt. Despite of the role her mother expects from her, Chi-hon says to So-nyo, Mom.

An international sensation and a bestseller that has sold over 1.5 million copies author's Korea, Please Look After Mom is a stunning, deeply moving story of a family's search for their missing mother - and their discovery of the desires, heartaches and secrets they never realized she harbored within.

Please look after my mother