Excerpt from Almond by Sohn Won-pyung, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Things got worse after I entered elementary school. One day, on the way home from school, a girl walking in front of me tripped over a rock. She was blocking my way, so I examined the Mickey Mouse hairband she was wearing while I waited for her to get back up. But she just sat there and cried. Finally, her mom came and helped her stand. She glanced at me, clucking her tongue.

"You see your friend fall and don't even ask if she's okay? So the rumors are true, something is weird about you."

I couldn't think of anything to say, so I said nothing. The other kids sensed that something was happening and gathered around me, their whispers prickling my ears. For all I knew, they were probably echoing what the girl's mom had said. That was when Granny came in to save me, appearing out of nowhere like Wonder Woman, sweeping me up into her arms.

"Watch your mouth!" she snapped in her husky voice. "She was just unlucky to trip. Who do you think you are to blame my boy?"

Granny didn't forget to say a word to the kids, either.

"What are you staring at, you little brats?"

When we walked farther away, I looked up to see Granny with her lips pressed tight.

"Granny, why do people call me weird?"

Her lips loosened.

"Maybe it's because you're special. People just can't stand it when something is different, eigoo, my adorable little monster."

Granny hugged me so tight my ribs hurt. She always called me a monster. To her, that wasn't a bad thing.

4

To be honest, it took me a while to understand the nickname Granny had so affectionately given me. Monsters in books weren't adorable. In fact, monsters were completely opposite to everything adorable. I wondered why she'd call me that. Even after I learned the word "paradox"—which meant putting contradictory ideas together—I was confused. Did the stress fall on "adorable" or "monster?" Anyway, she said she called me that out of love, so I decided to trust her.

Tears welled up in Mom's eyes as Granny told her about the Mickey Mouse girl.

"I knew this day would come ... I just didn't expect it to be this soon ..."

"Oh, stop that nonsense! If you want to whine, go whine in your room and keep the door shut!"

That stopped Mom's crying for a moment. She glanced at Granny, a bit startled by the sudden outburst. Then she began to cry even harder. Granny clucked her tongue and shook her head, her eyes resting on a corner of the ceiling, heaving a deep sigh. This seemed to be their typical routine.

It was true, Mom had been worried about me for a long time. That was because I was always different from other kids—different from birth even, because:

I never smiled.

At first, Mom had thought I was just slow to develop. But parenting books told her that a baby starts smiling three days after being born. She counted the days—it had been nearly a hundred.

Like a fairy-tale princess cursed to never smile, I didn't bat an eye. And like a prince from a faraway land trying to win over his beloved's heart, Mom tried everything. She tried clapping, bought different colored rattles, and even did silly dances to children's songs. When she wore herself out, she went out to the veranda and smoked, a habit she'd barely managed to quit after finding out she was pregnant with me. I once saw a video filmed around that time, where Mom was trying so hard, and I was just staring at her. My eyes were too deep and calm to be those of a child's. Whatever she did, Mom couldn't make me smile.

The doctor said I had no particular issues. Except for the lack of smiles, the test results showed that my height, weight, and behavioral development were all normal for my age. The pediatrician in our neighborhood dismissed Mom's concerns, telling her not to worry, because her baby was growing just fine. For a while after that, Mom tried to comfort herself by saying that I was just a little quieter than other kids.

Excerpted from Almond by Sohn Won-pyung. Copyright © 2020 by Sohn Won-pyung. Excerpted by permission of Harper Via. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.