Suki poses next to the painting which served as The Interpreter cover art. Created by the Seoul-based artist, Sunny Kim, who, in addition to being voted as one of Korea's most exciting young artists by Wolganmisul Magazine (January 2003) and Vogue Korea (November 2005), is also Suki's sister.
The Interpreter came to me in one clear moment. I was standing in line at McDonald's one morning a few years ago. It was raining that day. Outside was the Bronx; I can no longer remember why I was there to begin with. I had plenty time to kill, so I ordered the breakfast special, scrambled eggs, biscuits, hash browns, the whole ensemble. And by the time the girl handed me the complete tray, I felt a sudden grip of nausea. It was neither the food nor the place. Something less rooted, yet pungent. Like falling maybe. Not a rollacoaster dive, but a vertical fall into a deep and dark corner. I don't know if I ran home and wrote the first chapter that very afternoon, but the beginning scene came fast, and the character of Suzy Park followed almost naturally. I did a lot of research for Suzy's character. I learned interpreting in order to understand Suzy's motives. I went to Montauk to see what Suzy would see. I walked around the city, often with no clear destination, just as Suzy might. In a way, I lived the life of Suzy Park during the writing of The Interpreter. In this way, the novel took on a tone of mystery. Surely its subject, which includes murder among other things, renders itself to such a genre, but more likely, the suspenseful overtone was inevitable because I became an obsessed detective, always closely examining her. Now that the book is over, I do miss Suzy. Sometimes I find myself just sitting at my desk and rereading the novel. Of course, I am not really reading; I know each line by heart. But it is a comfort, to know that she gets to live on pages. Suki Kim