"To Where the Light Leads" by Baek Hee-sung (Book Romance)

"To Where the Light Leads"

By Baek Hee-sung

Book Romance

Lumiere Clerget is a disheartened architect who, despite designing beautiful homes for others, struggles to find a place he can call his own. One day, he receives a call from his real estate agent who has miraculously found him an affordable listing in Paris.

The house, with its peculiar features like an unusually low staircase handrail, intrigues Lumiere. He discovers that the house belongs to Peter Waltzer, a wealthy man living in a Swiss nursing home, and that he was "chosen" because he is an architect.

Lumiere visits Peter in Switzerland, where he encounters more architectural oddities -- trumpet-shaped corridors and secret doors that seem wildly impractical at first glance. Peter reveals that these peculiarities are part of a larger puzzle left by his father, Francois, the architect of the nursing home. Peter asks Lumiere to help unravel the mystery embedded within the buildings, setting him on a path that bridges the past and present, and the late architect’s love story.

Acclaimed architect Baek Hee-sung, reflecting on his eight-year residency in Paris, writes that whenever he encountered a beautiful house, he would leave a note in the mailbox reading, "From an architect who wishes to hear the story of your house."

Inspired by these serendipitous invitations and the resulting interviews with Parisian homeowners, Baek wrote an essay in 2015, which later evolved into this novel that intertwines personal discovery with architectural marvels.

Baek said he realized that architects create imperfect spaces, and the residents who fill them with memories and love complete the architectural vision.