28 SYNOPSIS THIS ADRENALINE-FILLED NOVEL is written from the six characters’ intersecting points of view, a stark reminder that no event is ever clear-cut.
Brimming with characters that are larger than life and embroidered with evocative meditations on humanity, ​28 is a riveting ride of fear, despair, and the power of empathy. This blockbuster of a novel is reminiscent of the very best of Stephen King and is sure to be a worldwide sensation. A thrilling, multilayered tale of undying loyalty and unlikely kinship during uncertain times, ​28 is the explosive new bestseller by You-jeong Jeong, the celebrated Korean master of suspense. Injecting her trademark precision and complex, irresistible characters into this story of a city overtaken by a mysterious disease, Jeong has crafted an intricate study of the true form human nature takes during disaster and the resulting anarchy. In a small, quiet city near Seoul, a dog breeder is discovered near death in his apartment, his skin sallow and his eyes bloodshot. The place is overrun with caged dogs; they too are dead or dying. Only one manages to escape—Ringo, a hulking wolf-dog. Although emergency technicians rush the breeder to the hospital, he hemorrhages to death. A few days later, the same emergency technicians are brought to the hospital exhibiting identical symptoms, all except Gi-jun, who entered the apartment first. Afraid that he might be infected as well, he stays away from his wife and young daughter and dives into work.
Soon, the hospital staff begins succumbing to the disease, and Su-jin, a junior emergency room nurse, is pulled in to cover for her colleagues. Entire neighborhoods are stricken and the hospital is overrun with the dead and dying. Soon the military enforces a quarantine of the city and declares martial law. Su-jin periodically stops by the apartment she shares with her father but she is consumed with anxiety—her father is nowhere to be found. Around the same time, the city’s elusive veterinarian, Jae-hyeong, once an up-and-coming musher in Alaska, begins to see more canine patients in his dog shelter. He is also trying to get rid of a brash, insistent reporter, Yun-ju, who wrote a damning article accusing him of killing his sled dogs many years ago in Alaska and doing the same to the animals in his shelter. Acting on an anonymous tip, Yun-ju was trying to get more information about Jae-hyeong when the quarantine strands her in the city. Although Jae-hyeong is initially standoffish, he asks for Yun-ju’s help when he unexpectedly finds himself a guardian of a young blind girl. As Jae-hyeong and Yun-ju begin to understand each other’s strengths and passions, they gradually develop a mutual affection.
Yun-ju’s anonymous source is Dong-hae, who has an axe to grind with Jae-hyeong. Years ago, he was beating his father’s beloved dog, Cookie, when Jae-hyeong intervened and rescued the animal. Jae-hyeong’s involvement brought Dong-hae’s violence to the attentionof his father, who then sent him to the military. Now that Dong-hae is back in town, he is obsessed with revenge. He stalks Jae-hyeong, waiting for a chance to snatch Cookie so he can finish the dog off. He also stalks his parents, resentful of having always been the black sheep. With sociopathic conviction, Dong-hae roams the stricken city, focused only on his own mission. But when Dong-hae accidentally kidnaps Star, another one of Jae-hyeong’s dogs, instead of Cookie, he launches a tangled web of events that end with his death. Ringo, who has been hiding in the woods since his escape, rescues Star. Ringo is madly in love with Star, and the two dogs stay together, away from the chaos. Soon, people realize the disease originated in dogs, and the government sends armed military personnel to round up dogs and kill them. Eventually, the government cuts off all access to the outside, including internet and cell phone service, and the military stands by as the city descends into violent riots, looting, and other crime. As people try to flee the city on covert midnight journeys through the woods, rumors abound that the military is shooting anyone who attempts to break the quarantine. With nobody to trust and a large number of townspeople succumbing to this mysterious disease, Gi-jun, Su-jin, Jae-hyeong, Yun-ju, and Dong-hae try to survive in their own ways, feeling increasingly abandoned and isolated. Some of them begin to descend into madness, as others dig deep to do the right thing. In the end, as the military slaughters protesting civilians, Gi-jun, Jae-hyeong, and Ringo face off, fueled by sorrow, revenge, and despair.