PositiveThe New StatesmanUnlike her previous novels, [The White Book] neither bears witness to the living nor commemorates the dead but, through a series of trance-like vignettes, consecrates the never-lived ... a profound, beautiful and doomed project ... Time after time, Han’s writing grapples with the insoluble, overwrought nature of trauma. If I have one criticism of the book, it is that I’m not sure about the inclusion of seven black-and-white photos of a woman (presumably Han) holding various objects that appear elsewhere in the novel – a white pebble, swaddling bands, a newborn’s gown. They hint at a misjudged lack of confidence in the words (which have, once again, been beautifully translated by Deborah Smith) ... Han’s non-linear, disembodied prose is the perfect medium wherein the sisters can coexist.
