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The disaster tourist : a novel

by Yun, Ko-ŭn, 1980-

Format: Print Book 2020
Availability: Available at 6 Libraries 6 of 6 copies

Available (6)
Location Collection Call #
CLP - Hill District Fiction Collection FICTION Yun
Location  CLP - Hill District
 
Collection  Fiction Collection
 
Call Number  FICTION Yun
 
 
CLP - Main Library First Floor - World Fiction FICTION Yun
Location  CLP - Main Library
 
Collection  First Floor - World Fiction
 
Call Number  FICTION Yun
 
 
CLP - Squirrel Hill Fiction Collection FICTION Yun
Location  CLP - Squirrel Hill
 
Collection  Fiction Collection
 
Call Number  FICTION Yun
 
 
Millvale Community Library Adult Fiction FIC YUN
Location  Millvale Community Library
 
Collection  Adult Fiction
 
Call Number  FIC YUN
 
 
Mt. Lebanon Public Library Fiction YUN Ko-eun
Location  Mt. Lebanon Public Library
 
Collection  Fiction
 
Call Number  YUN Ko-eun
 
 
Northland Public Library Fiction FIC YUN
Location  Northland Public Library
 
Collection  Fiction
 
Call Number  FIC YUN
 
 

Summary
This stunning "dystopian feminist eco-thriller" from an award-winning South Korean author "takes on climate change, sexual assault, greed, and dark tourism" ( Ms. Magazine ).

Welcome to the desert island of Mui, where a paid vacation to paradise is nothing short of a disaster in this "mordantly witty novel [that] reads like a highly literary, ultra-incisive thriller" ( Refinery29 ).

Jungle is a cutting-edge travel agency specializing in tourism to destinations devastated by disaster and climate change. And until she found herself at the mercy of a predatory colleague, Yona was one of their top representatives. Now on the verge of losing her job, she's given a proposition: take a paid "vacation" to the desert island of Mui and pose as a tourist to assess the company's least profitable holiday.

When she uncovers a plan to fabricate an extravagant catastrophe, she must choose: prioritize the callous company to whom she's dedicated her life, or embrace a fresh start in a powerful new position? An eco-thriller with a fierce feminist sensibility, The Disaster Tourist introduces a fresh new voice to the United States that engages with the global dialogue around climate activism, dark tourism, and the #MeToo movement.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "Yona is an employee of Jungle, a South Korean company that arranges expensive tours and vacation packages to areas ravaged by such disasters as droughts, typhoons, tsunamis, avalanches, and earthquakes. Despite her 10-year employment at Jungle, 33-year old Yona is not impervious to sexual harassment and endures multiple abuses at the hands of her supervisor. To avoid her resignation, the company offers her an all-expense-paid trip to one of their fledgling vacation destinations. She agrees to go as an evaluator and joins four vacationers traveling to Mui, an island off the coast of Vietnam. Not only is the destination spot managed poorly, the featured attraction is a lackluster sinkhole. Yona uncovers the resort's intricate and risky plan to, unbeknownst to Jungle, engineer a bigger sinkhole featuring fake casualties to be captured on video with dramatic aplomb. As Yona becomes entangled in the mesh of reality and a manufactured catastrophe, her situation quickly spins out of control. Ko-Eun's ecothriller skillfully explores the intertwined themes of tourism, livelihood, greed, and the value of human life."
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "South Korean author Yun's spare but provocative novel (after the collection Table for One) offers perceptive satire laced with disconcerting imagery. In her mid-30s, Yona Ko has devoted the last decade of her life to her employer, Jungle, which offers package tours to areas of the world ravaged by disasters, from hurricanes to nuclear meltdowns. After being sexually assaulted by her boss and assigned to a new role, Yona suspects she's being pushed out of the company. On the verge of quitting, she's given a new opportunity: evaluate the disaster ecosystem on a Vietnamese island (a sinkhole, a volcano) and determine whether the destination should be kept in Jungle's portfolio. Upon arriving, Yona soon realizes that the island's power brokers are aware that their tourist income is imperiled, and she is appalled when an investor tells her of a plan to engineer a sinkhole during a village festival that would kill at least 100 people, after which they would use international aid for urban redevelopment. In Yona's increasingly bizarre encounters, she learns just how severe the local environmental degradation is and the frightening extent of corporate greed. Yun cleverly combines absurdity with legitimate horror and mounting dread. With its arresting, nightmarish island scenario, this work speaks volumes about the human cost of tourism in developing countries. (Aug.)"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Dark tourism -- Fiction.
Climatic changes -- Fiction.
Travel agents -- Fiction.
Tourism -- Employees -- Fiction.
Tourism -- Korea (South) -- Fiction.
Islands -- Vietnam -- Fiction.
Vietnam -- Description and travel -- Fiction.
Black humor.
Publisher Berkeley, California :Counterpoint,2020
Edition First Counterpoint edition.
Contributors Buehler, Lizzie, translator.
Language English
In English, translated from the Korean.
Description 200 pages ; 21 cm
ISBN 9781640094161
1640094164
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