The Crucible (도가니) is a 2009 novel by Gong Ji-Young (공지영) a well known South Korean novelist, based on an actual case of mass sexual abuse at a school for the hearing impaired in Gwangju Inhwa, South Korea. The title was taken from Arthur Miller's eponymous play.
Kang In-ho is a teacher forced to leave his family after the suicide of a former student he had been romantically involved with. He settles in "Mujin" (a fictional city) where he finds employment as a teacher at a school for the hearing impaired.
On the first day of his new job, a young boy is struck and killed by a train, the latest of a series of accidents he soon discovers. He hears of a young girl who had recently committed suicide by jumping off a cliff.
