The Last Tiger is a fantasy novel about two friends who break tradition and change their destiny.
Penguin Random House
The last tiger Set in a Korean alternative. During the Japanese occupation (1910-1945), it was a land with some similarities to South Korea, but in South Korea there were magical creatures and human characters with unrealized powers. There is also a tiger, a very important tiger, that needs to be preserved. The last tiger It is a YA fantasy novel that inspired real stories, stories of writers Julia Riew and Brad Riew, who they heard from their grandparents. When their grandfather passed away, their grandmother showed them 50 pages of written memories during the pandemic. The siblings know they need to tell stories.
“We read through them and immediately wanted to do something to the story she told, which we heard since grandfather grew up,” Brad said. “They lived such an extraordinary life and we always thought we might want to write something, but it was a catalytic event.
Julia suggests that they incorporate their grandparents’ story into a young adult fantasy novel. Although they have loved fantasy stories since childhood, that’s not the only reason they chose this genre.
“Fantasy is a wonderful way to dig out some very deep and dark problems,” Julia said. “To dig out history and these extreme struggles our grandparents experienced around this magical, whimsical, fun world for young people who might otherwise be uninterested in learning history.”
In the world, authors create rules they can make.
“It’s really exciting to be able to present these experiences and respect our grandparents’ lives and their stories while creating a world of our own,” Julia said. “It can actually only be done in the fantasy space.”
This story retains many facts, such as the different social status of the main characters. Seung is a servant, while the young nobleman Eun-ji is for the marriage. In their grandparents’ time, their time was a taboo romance.
“Our grandmother came from a wealthy, outstanding family,” Julia said. “During the Japanese occupation, our grandfather’s father’s tailoring business was closed by the Japanese government because all Korean businesses were banned under the Japanese occupation.”
Their grandmother’s parents wanted her to marry a boy from another wealthy family. Like Eun-ji, she refused.
“Our grandmother’s parents did indeed get her arrested,” Julia said. “They said you can’t see him because he’s too poor to put food on the table.”
“The Last Tiger” was published on July 29.
penguin
Seung and Eun-ji disagree with the way of occupying forces hunting tigers.
Julia said: “The Japanese Empire did indeed hunt tigers in South Korea at that time.
Once known as tiger lands, South Korea remains a powerful symbol in Korean culture.
“The Japanese national policy at that time was formally a cultural erasure policy,” Brad said. “Their purpose was to integrate South Korea as a nation into the Japanese empire. It was to ban Korean language and ban Korean folk songs from being sung. People were forced to replace Japanese names. The goal was to eliminate Korean culture.”
Characters find that they have unusual powers to help them pursue.
“The superpowers embody what we think is the power of Korean culture to deal with some of the historical difficulties people have experienced and turn it into a force of communication,” Brad said. “We want to respect the deep historical roots and also really speak to a new generation of young people.
Writing duo is unusual, especially with sibling co-authors. However, Julia and Brad are not difficult.
“I think the big part of our collaboration is trust,” Julia said. “We just really trust each other’s judgment, and we’re still growing up in everything. We started telling stories from kids since we were young. For all my projects, even those that weren’t working with Brad, I still had problems. Whenever I got stuck in a story.
Trust your siblings are great, but how about the day-to-day work of writing?
“We tried many different ways,” Julia said. When we start, I’ll pick the Eun-Ji chapter. Brad will take Seung’s chapter, but it will disappear soon. Ultimately, ultimately, the most exciting thing is to write about a person who has a specific scene, stab the first one and write a very messy version. Another person will work on another scene, and then we will get stuck in another person’s work and then write other books and read books and then rely on them and then write. The final draft was indeed written by the two of us. ”
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Julia said: “A lot of my work is in the musical theatre. I wrote a musical for my advanced thesis. diving, It is still premiering in the American Repertory Theatre. There is also an intermediate novel, a companion book for a musical released with Harper Collins. ”
Brad is a psychology major and is currently in the MFA program at New York University (NYU). During the pandemic, he suffered from co-infection and severe mold allergies. He was sick, he lost his job, but found how much he liked writing.
“The opportunity to do a project like this and explore a path that has not been taken suddenly became the real possibility,” Brad said. “It was the only thing I could do in that period. ”
The writing duo has another Penguin book released in 2027, but they can’t share anything about the plot yet. At the same time, people are interested in adaptation The last tiger For the screen. This is a movie. More importantly, the author hopes that the book provides hopeful information.
“There are usually so much confusion and turmoil that it’s hard for young people (for the average person) to see the way forward,” Brad said. “We are no exception and feel a lot of pain and collective sadness at this moment. It’s clarified for us both through our story reply because we feel they’ve been through an incredibly turbulent and adversity moment, and they’ve found that power in themselves, but they’ve found their own lives, their lives and their lives happening. To make some confusion, we want young people to stand behind them on their shoulders and say you’re not alone and we’ll be with you.
The last tiger Penguin, published on July 29, quickly won No. 1 in the Amazon’s Teenagers and Young Asian Historical Novels category.
