
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Sae, former journalist turned a young mother of two in 1992 Seoul, is waiting for her husband, an engineer for a small construction company. He’s late. A neighbor rushes down with the news: a high-rise downtown has collapsed, trapping hundreds inside–the same high-rise that Sae’s husband is working.
That disaster, which parallels the real-life Sampoong Department Store collapse in 1995, starts the story of Hannah Michell’s novel Excavations (One World: 2023). Sae and the book’s other characters try to uncover the mystery of why this high-rise, the jewel of Seoul’s skyline, unexpectedly collapsed–and who might be to blame.
In this interview, Hannah and I talk about the Sampoong Department Store and how it parallels her novel, and what current-day events inspired the development of her book
Hannah Michell grew up in Seoul. She studied anthropology and philosophy at Cambridge University and now lives in California with her husband and children. She teaches in the Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley. You can follow her on Instagram at @_hannahmichell.
You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of Excavations. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia.
Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at@nickrigordon.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
By Marshall Poe5
88 ratings
Sae, former journalist turned a young mother of two in 1992 Seoul, is waiting for her husband, an engineer for a small construction company. He’s late. A neighbor rushes down with the news: a high-rise downtown has collapsed, trapping hundreds inside–the same high-rise that Sae’s husband is working.
That disaster, which parallels the real-life Sampoong Department Store collapse in 1995, starts the story of Hannah Michell’s novel Excavations (One World: 2023). Sae and the book’s other characters try to uncover the mystery of why this high-rise, the jewel of Seoul’s skyline, unexpectedly collapsed–and who might be to blame.
In this interview, Hannah and I talk about the Sampoong Department Store and how it parallels her novel, and what current-day events inspired the development of her book
Hannah Michell grew up in Seoul. She studied anthropology and philosophy at Cambridge University and now lives in California with her husband and children. She teaches in the Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley. You can follow her on Instagram at @_hannahmichell.
You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of Excavations. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia.
Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at@nickrigordon.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

38,477 Listeners

6,773 Listeners

43,709 Listeners

7,721 Listeners

3,887 Listeners

2,859 Listeners

112 Listeners

211 Listeners

161 Listeners

62 Listeners

26 Listeners

185 Listeners

163 Listeners

23 Listeners

103 Listeners

60 Listeners

2,138 Listeners

112,751 Listeners

2,323 Listeners

1,243 Listeners

16,631 Listeners

313 Listeners

630 Listeners

246 Listeners

10,070 Listeners