Drumbeat by Song Yong

The least interesting story in this series so far. 

Song Yong creates fictional locale (Nongol), a spatial construction that mirrors the shut off, despairing world of the protagonist who lives on the margins. 

The story starts as the protagonist revisits Nongol, having somehow escaped its interior that renders its inhabitants listless and helpless; what is the outside world?

Not 100% sure of the reasons for his usage of Christianity and Korean shamanism (the source of the drumbeat referenced by the title).

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