--- description: Find out why "We Do Not Part" is on TIME's list of the must-read books of the year. title: 'We Do Not Part' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2025 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0fc0111985b6c847/6998cb3f93610cc65bc30209/100_Books_2025_We-Do-Not-Part-Han-Kang.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 12, 2025 # We Do Not Part by Han Kang by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  [Nobel Prize winner](https://time.com/7085708/han-kang-nobel-prize-literature/ "undefined") [Han Kang](https://time.com/collection/must-read-books-2023/6332655/greek-lessons/ "undefined")’s _We Do Not Part_ grapples with the lasting effects of a tragic chapter in modern Korean history.Kang’s haunting 2021 novel, newly translated from the original Korean by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris, begins with Kyungha, a writer suffering from chronic migraines, reluctantlyagreeing to care for the pet bird of her friend Inseon, who is in the hospital recovering from a gruesome woodworking accident. To get to the animal, who is mere hours away from dying of starvation, Kyungha travels hundreds of miles in a terrible snowstorm to Jeju, the island that was the location of [a devastating massacre](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/28/world/asia/south-korea-jeju-massacres.html "undefined") in 1948\. Once there, she gets lost and takes a hard fall into an embankment. When she eventually wakes up, she’s badly bruised, nearly hypothermic, and more than a little disoriented. She begins seeing the ghosts of those who were killed on the island, which forces her to reckon with atrocities that she has long chosen to ignore. With _We Do Not Part,_ Kangimplores readers to do the same. —_Shannon Carlin_ **_These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser._** **Buy Now:** _We Do Not Part_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780593595459 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/47LIMyi "undefined") These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. We Do Not Part: 100 Must-Read Books of 2025 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-100-must-read-books-of-2025/7329567/we-do-not-part/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-100-must-read-books-of-2025/7329567/we-do-not-part/"},"headline":"We Do Not Part","datePublished":"2025-11-12T13:00:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T01:03:24.500Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/the-100-must-read-books-of-2025/7329567/we-do-not-part/","keywords":["Books","E-Commerce","list","ecommerce","Special Project"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0fc0111985b6c847/6998cb3f93610cc65bc30209/100_Books_2025_We-Do-Not-Part-Han-Kang.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0fc0111985b6c847/6998cb3f93610cc65bc30209/100_Books_2025_We-Do-Not-Part-Han-Kang.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-100-must-read-books-of-2025/7329567/we-do-not-part/","name":"We Do Not Part"}}]}] ```