Excerpt from Please Look After Mom by Kyung-sook Shin, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Father got off at the next stop and went back to Seoul Station, but Mom wasn't there anymore.

"How could she get so lost just because she didn't get on the same car? There are signs all over the place. Mother knows how to make a simple phone call. She could have called from a phone booth." Your sister-in-law insisted that something had to have happened to your mom, that it didn't make sense that she couldn't find her own son's house just because she failed to get on the same train as Father. Something happened to Mom. That was the view of someone who wanted to think of Mom as the old mom.

When you said, "Mom can get lost, you know," your sister-in-law widened her eyes in surprise. "You know how Mom is these days," you explained, and your sister-in-law made a face, as if she had no idea what you were talking about. But your family knew what Mom was like these days. And knew that you might not be able to find her.