Mun Yu-Jung lies in a hospital bed after her third failed suicide attempt. Once a famous pop star lauded for her single hit, she is now an angry, impulsive young woman. When her religious aunt offers an alternative to therapy, Yu-Jung grudgingly agrees to accompany her on visits to a death-row inmate for a month.
Both Yu-Jung and Jeong Yun-Soo, the prisoner, believe themselves beyond redemption; they've heard from others that they are garbage and a waste of space for so long that those voices of hate have become their own. When the two meet, though their lives have been very different, they recognize they've both come from a similar place of pain.
Gong Ji-young (a major South Korean author, infrequently translated into English) alternates between Yu-Jung's point of view and Yun-Soo's story, told in letter form. Yu-Jung's initial disgust for the death-row inmate slowly evolves into compassion as Yun-Soo shares his past, and in these moments of compassion, Yu-Jung finds a way to heal from her own traumas. The closer these two become, the more the specter of Yun-Soo's execution haunts their every conversation.
In Our Happy Time, Gong examines the role society plays in creating criminals and explores the price paid when people vilify and dehumanize others. She does not shy from hard truths, revealing her character's inner conflict and humanity with a deft and practiced hand. This is an emotionally difficult story told gently, but does not leave readers unscathed. --Justus Joseph, bookseller, Elliott Bay Book Company