According to Indian myth, Ganesha, the god of wisdom who has the head of an elephant and the body of a human is selected as the perfect scribe to transcribe the poem of Vyasa. Vyasa recites his poem without pausing, and when his writing tool breaks while transcribing, Ganesha pulls out his tooth to continue transcribing. 

Inspired by this Indian myth, the author delves into a wild question that could very well be regarding herself. 

“Would a partner like Ganesha who helped Vyasa’s poems find its way to print, make it possible for me to write a brilliant piece of work?”

All writers probably have the perfect ‘writer’s room’that they dream of. With this question, Lee Seol suddenly is lucky enough to get this kind of perfect ‘writer’s room’ and the author follows the traces of Lee Seol, looking for answers.

“I” am searching for the writer Lee Seol, who vanished after finishing her short story, “The Novelist’s Wife”, in the ‘writer’s room’. Lee Seol has left me with an unfinished novel, which begins with the strange encounter at the Shiva café, with a man named Jin who wears a necklace of Ganesha.

Lee Seol accepts the man’s offer to enter the writer’s room. And the writer’s room provides the perfect environment to focus on her writing without being bothered by anyone. However, she experiences conflict with the lady who comes to cook and clean, and her writing is halted.

I follow along the unfinished story and try to track Lee Seol and Jin, which brings me to encounter the novel’s characters one by one. On one particular day during this search, I notice I’m being followed by a stranger with an orange shawl. I learn that the maid who appears in the novel is the wife of the novelist M, and predict that the reason Lee Seol is gone is because of the novelist’s wife.

I come to suffer memory loss due to an automobile accident, and have to be tested for severe headaches and ear ringing. I realize that a tumor has been growing in my head since long ago. In the course of treatment, I am able to remember Lee Seol, her novel, and the meeting with novelist M. And I embark on the task of finishing the story Lee Seol could never finish, in a new way.

Seo Seongran  Seo Seongran was born in 1967 in Iksan and grew up in Seoul. She majored in Korean literature at Seokyeong University and received a Masters in creative writing from Chung-Ang University. In 1996, Seo debuted with the novelette A Grandmother’s Peace and won the Silcheon Munhak New Writer’s Award. She has written collections of short stories: Memories of the Room, Paprika, and A Woman without a Bed. She has also written the novels The Moon When No One Vanishes, A Special Guest, Being Twenty the Seventh Time, and Pungnyeon Restaurant Recipe.