The Old Woman with the Knife, Gu Byeong-mo

Sometimes a little gem pops into your listening orbit, THE OLD WOMAN WITH THE KNIFE by Gu Byeong-mo being just such a surprise. Borrowed from the libraries audiobook list on a whim, narrated by Nancy Wu, there some just something about this that worked for this deeply fussy listener. 

Set in Korea, this is the story of a sixty-five-year-old contract killer who has experienced loss, grief and many complications in her life, not just because of the job she's done for many years. Nearing the end of her career, her life is starting to lose meaning. It's really down to her and her rescue dog, Deadweight, who is also aging rapidly, when she finds the past is coming back to try to get even, and an unexpected connection with a kind doctor and her family makes her uncomfortably vulnerable.

There was much to love about this story of Hornclaw, as she lives modestly, with few contacts in life and a threat from a young man that she doesn't really know is there until it's nearly too late. As her physicality fades, and her mind starts to cloud, she's still doing the occasional job, struggling with her faith in herself, the little failures in capacity and thinking that start to stand out, and what the little future she has left will have in store for her. 

There is a wonderfully strong feeling of the culture in which it is set, with the food, the markets in town, the mannerisms and the style of Korea seeping into everything. It's also a universal story of aging, and frailty, and the reflection that comes as there is less in front than behind somebody. Hornclaw's not, however, anybody's victim and if nothing else, a lifetime as an assassin has taught this woman a few things about planning and survival. It's just that the events around her present are possibly teaching her about emotions and connections more than has ever happened in her past. All in all, unexpected, engaging and oddly life-affirming, surprisingly so really, what with the aging and the killing ...