The Space between Here & Now

• When a scent triggers a memory, a girl vanishes into the past. The truth about her mother hidden within a 9-hour blank space.
• "I hid it to protect you"... A father's lie and a journey spanning from Vancouver to Seoul.
• A dazzling coming-of-age drama about filling the gaps in memory, overcoming loss, and reclaiming a whole 'now'.

The Sense of Smell: The Most Primal Key to Unlocking Memory

Everyone has experienced stopping in their tracks to reminisce about the past, triggered by a passing scent. Just as Marcel Proust recalled his childhood after smelling a madeleine, the sense of smell is considered the most powerful and primal key to opening the door to memory. However, going beyond merely being lost in thought, there is a girl who physically disappears into the time of the past through the medium of scent. Sarah Suk's new novel, The Space between Here & Now, follows the narrative of the protagonist, Aimee Roh, who lives with this bizarre yet melancholy premise.

A Curse, Not a Blessing: 'Sensory Time Warp Syndrome'

Aimee, a 17-year-old girl living in Vancouver, Canada, suffers from a rare condition called 'Sensory Time Warp Syndrome (STWS)'. It is a condition where smelling a specific scent causes her to 'time slip' into the past memories associated with it.

While it may sound like a superpower straight out of a sci-fi novel, to Aimee, it is nothing more than an obstacle that destroys her daily life. Without warning, she is thrown into the past—whether she catches a whiff of unfamiliar perfume in the school hallway or is just hanging out with her friends. The terrifying reality of being unable to control time and space prevents the protagonist from grounding herself in a complete 'present'. Her physical body exists 'Here', but her mind and existence are constantly left drifting in the 'Now of the past'. Her father's attitude toward his daughter's symptoms goes beyond pity; it borders on obsession. His belief that the illness can be controlled through sheer willpower makes Aimee feel ashamed of her condition, further causing her to shrink away from life.

The Missing Mother, a 9-Hour Gap, and Sprouting Doubts

Aimee's precarious daily life takes a dramatic turn when she experiences an unprecedented event: disappearing from reality for a whopping nine hours. The past that Aimee inhabited during this agonizingly long period was a memory of her mother, who left the family when Aimee was young.

The problem is that the image of her mother witnessed through the time slip starkly contradicts the stories her father had told her. Her father had always claimed that her mother abandoned their family, but the mother in the past—reached through the medium of scent—was by no means a cold-hearted person who would abandon her child. This '9-hour mystery' ignites a deep ember of doubt within Aimee. She begins to question which is the truth between her own memories and her father's testimony, and why only her memories of her mother are so blurry and distorted. Finally, Aimee decides to break free from the safe fence—or perhaps prison—that her father has built around her.

From Vancouver to Korea... A Spatial Shift Toward the Truth

To uncover the truth, Aimee chooses to travel to Korea. The author shifts the protagonist's main stage from the vast nature of Vancouver to the bustling downtown of Seoul. This spatial shift functions as more than just a change of scenery; it acts as a symbolic journey in which Aimee confronts her identity and roots.

The narrative in Korea largely splits into two branches: a mystery pursuit tracking the traces of her missing mother, and a coming-of-age drama about finding her identity as a member of the diaspora. Amidst an unfamiliar environment and language, the protagonist chooses to delve deeply into the 'scents' that once bound her, rather than running away from them. The author describes this process with highly sensory and dense prose. Readers get to indirectly experience these olfactory images through vivid descriptions—the sweet and spicy smells of market alleyways, the dampness of a rainy day, and the musty scent of an old photo album.

Edited Memories and Honest Senses

The core question piercing through the work is, "How truthful are our memories, really?" As a defense mechanism, humans erase painful memories or overwrite their own memories with the narratives of others. Aimee's father, who conceals the truth and forces a fabricated 'happy present' under the pretext of protecting his daughter, is a testament to this. However, it is impossible to live fully in the present while severed from the past.

In this context, Aimee's syndrome acts as more than just an illness; it serves as a mechanism for unearthing concealed truths. This is because, unlike logic or language, the sense of smell is a primal sense that cannot be manipulated. The excuse "I did it because I loved you" loses its power in the face of scents that summon the raw, unedited past. As the truth comes to light, the process of filling the void within the protagonist goes beyond a simple mystery; it is closer to a restoration project, reassembling the shattered pieces of a lost self.

Between 'Here' and 'Now': How to Cross the Space of Silence

The title, The Space between Here & Now, carries multifaceted meanings. Primarily, it refers to the gap between the present and the past experienced by the time-traveling protagonist, but as the narrative unfolds, this 'space' is substituted with the 'silence' between the characters. The author delicately captures the massive chasm of disconnection that has been tolerated under the guise of 'family' and 'not wanting to inflict pain'. The novel highlights the protagonist's courage to actively cross that gap and face the truth, delivering a profound message: only when we face and reconcile with the past head-on, rather than avoiding it, can we truly live out a whole 'Now'.

Warmth that Crosses Borders: Author Sarah Suk

Compared to her fresh previous work, Made in Korea, which utilized K-beauty as its subject matter, this new release explores a much deeper and heavier inner abyss. Yet, her gaze is never cynical; rather, it is akin to a warm spring that embraces wounded characters. As a Korean diaspora writer, her ability to seamlessly blend the generational conflicts of immigrant families, language barriers, and sentiments of loss and longing with sci-fi imagination truly stands out.

Salvation of the 'Present' Through Understanding the Past

This book holds too deep an implication to be dismissed as a simple teen romance or time-slip fantasy. It is literary comfort for those who have experienced loss, and a detailed guidepost for those wandering in search of their identity's roots.

Aimee did not go back in time to artificially alter reality. Instead, she saves her present by fully understanding the reality of her past. It emphasizes that the attitude of willingly embracing painful memories, rather than escaping them, is the only way we can actively live out our 'here, and now'. For readers seeking delicate emotional arcs and a warm, lingering resonance, this book promises to be an excellent literary experience—one where you can calmly face the fragments of memory awakened by familiar, everyday scents.