Novelist Jo Jung-rae chooses love for his final novel

Jo Jung-rae had spent more than five decades writing about war, history and the upheavals of Korean society. He had never written a love story.

"I'm getting older, and the time I have left to write stories is growing shorter as I approach the final chapter of my life," Jo, 83, said at a press conference Monday in central Seoul.

"The thought suddenly came to me: Why not write a love story now?"

Jo made his literary debut in 1970 and devoted much of his career to exploring Korea's turbulent history through a series of sweeping epics, including "The Taebaek Mountains," "Arirang" and "The Han River." The three novels, often described as a trilogy chronicling modern and contemporary Korean history, have become classics since their publication in the 1980s.

Including his latest novel, Jo has published 68 books. But "Frost Flower," his first novel in three years, is also his first work to take love and romance as its central subject.

"I wanted to explore how love is destroyed, and how human beings can recreate it," said Jo.

"Frost Flower" follows Lee Jae-yi, a member of a poetry club during his university years, and Yoon So-in, an art student, who are drawn to each other through a poetry-and-painting exhibition. Captivated by Lee's poetry, Yoon creates a painting for him inspired by Vincent van Gogh's "The Starry Night." Their artistic exchange becomes the beginning of a romance.

But Lee is pushed by his businessman father to study in the United States. When he returns to Seoul five years later, he finds Yoon, once a bright and beautiful young woman, impoverished, ill and worn down after her father's business fails. Lee resolves to devote everything he has to helping her recover.

Jo described the novel as a "sad love story," but emphasized that it is not simply a romance.

"The premise is that a sad love story is deeply connected to social issues rooted in reality," he said. He argues that the unchecked greed of what he calls "predatory capitalism," and the inhumane acts it produces, are eroding humanity.

Jo also reflected on what love means to him.

"Love is one of the most private and intimate of human emotions. I believe love is like hope, something that allows human beings to continue living," he said.

"No matter how the world changes, human beings will, in one way or another, create love. No matter how harsh capitalism becomes, it cannot stop love. My conviction in the eternity of love is another theme of this novel."

Jo said he believes "Frost Flower" may be his final full-length novel.

"I want to become humble before the novel itself, and I want to allow myself a little more freedom with my body," he said, adding that he would like to spend the rest of his life writing short stories and essays.