Here is the book synopsis of "The Old Woman with the Knife" by Gu Byeong-Mo:
An international bestseller and the English-language debut of an award-winning South Korean author, the novel follows a sixty-five-year-old assassin confronting an unexpected threat at the end of her long, violent career.
Hornclaw is sixty-five and slowing down. She lives a quiet life in a modest apartment, sharing her days with her aging rescue dog, Deadweight. By all appearances, she’s just another elderly woman—expected to fade into retirement and obscurity. But Hornclaw is no ordinary woman. For forty years, she’s been a professional killer.
From corrupt businessmen to unfaithful spouses, she’s dispatched her targets with cold precision, never asking questions, never making connections. But a misstep leaves her injured—and entangled with a compassionate doctor and his young family. As feelings begin to stir, the walls she’s built around her life start to crack. And for an assassin, emotion can be deadly.
A literary phenomenon in South Korea, The Old Woman with the Knife—translated by Chi-Young Kim—is a sharp, darkly funny, and provocative exploration of aging, autonomy, and the price of survival in a world that prefers older women invisible.
An international bestseller and the English-language debut of an award-winning South Korean author, the novel follows a sixty-five-year-old assassin confronting an unexpected threat at the end of her long, violent career.
Hornclaw is sixty-five and slowing down. She lives a quiet life in a modest apartment, sharing her days with her aging rescue dog, Deadweight. By all appearances, she’s just another elderly woman—expected to fade into retirement and obscurity. But Hornclaw is no ordinary woman. For forty years, she’s been a professional killer.
From corrupt businessmen to unfaithful spouses, she’s dispatched her targets with cold precision, never asking questions, never making connections. But a misstep leaves her injured—and entangled with a compassionate doctor and his young family. As feelings begin to stir, the walls she’s built around her life start to crack. And for an assassin, emotion can be deadly.
A literary phenomenon in South Korea, The Old Woman with the Knife—translated by Chi-Young Kim—is a sharp, darkly funny, and provocative exploration of aging, autonomy, and the price of survival in a world that prefers older women invisible.
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