A GUARD has been found dead, hanging from a beam, at Fukuoka Prison, his name is Sugiyama Dozan, and he was feared and despised by the prisoners.

From the start, his death is not considered a suicide but a murder; a steel stake had been stabbed into his heart and his lips sewn shut, and a poem found in his uniform pocket soon intrigues young guard Watanabe Yuichi, who’s given the task of finding his murderer. An inmate soon confesses, but Watanabe isn’t quite convinced of his guilt. As he begins to dig deeper, he uncovers untold conspiracies within the prison, magical friendships and the effects war has on humanity.

This spellbinding novel from Korean author Jung-Myung Lee, translated by Chi-Young Kim, has been inspired by the life of dissident Korean poet Yun Dong-ju and his posthumously published body of work, with several of his poems featured here.

Shereen Low