London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

The Midnight Timetable [forthcoming]

A novel-in-stories narrated by a night shift worker at a mysterious research center, where unsettling encounters ensue with the cursed objects studied there — the manifestations of their owners’ dread, guilt, and past mistakes that become living nightmares. Mazel tov, again, @AntonHur! More Bora Chung! (Also @thesafae ) pic.twitter.com/Ja629LT3Ih — Lawrence Schimel @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social (@lawrenceschimel) March … [Read More]

One Thousand Blues [forthcoming]

“One Thousand Blues won a prestigious science-fiction prize in Korea [4th Korea Sci-fi Literature Award] and became an instant bestseller. A hymn to the earth, a plea to slow down, to pay attention to our earth, it is set in the near future, and tells how a young woman befriends a faulty robot and together set … [Read More]

Runaway [forthcoming]

The novel follows the narrative of Jae-young, a young woman fleeing an abusive relationship. Her life takes a dramatic turn when she crosses paths with a young single mother cradling her child on an early morning train. She was on her way to her wealthy in-laws, who opposed her marriage. Despite initial wariness, an unexpected … [Read More]

The Healing Season of Pottery [forthcoming]

The Healing Season of Pottery was first published by Mojosa in Korea earlier [in 2023]. It follows 30-year-old Jungmin who, burnt out from an all-consuming screenwriting career, finds solace in the art of pottery. Across four seasons – summer, autumn, winter and spring – Jungmin’s wounds slowly heal: pot by pot, plate by plate, she … [Read More]

Blood of the Old Kings [forthcoming]

Powered by corpses of sorcerers, the Empire has conquered the world. It claims to have brought peace and stability to its conquered lands, but some see that peace for what it is—a lie—and will give everything to fight it. Loran was desperate for revenge after the Empire killed her family, so much so that she … [Read More]

Marigold Mind Laundry [forthcoming]

The comforting magical tale of a mysterious laundry that blooms into existence one night, and how its enigmatic owner summons her powers to heal souls and make dreams come true. We’re a mind laundry. What we wash and iron are the stains on your heart, the creases within you. If there’s anything upsetting you, we … [Read More]

The Proposal [forthcoming]

The Proposal by Bae Myung-hoon takes the form of a sci-fi romance novel. In space, distance is represented by time. The protagonist, an operations officer of the United Earth Surface, is battling an unknown opponent. His girlfriend is still living on planet Earth, separated from him by 170 hours. He travels 170 hours to pay … [Read More]

Song of Arirang: The Story of a Korean Rebel Revolutionary in China [forthcoming]

Song of Arirang tells the true story of Korean revolutionary Kim San (Jang Jirak), who left colonized Korea as a teenager to fight against Japanese imperialism and fought alongside Mao’s Red Army during the Chinese Revolution. First published in 1941, this remarkably intimate memoir (as told to the American journalist Nym Wales aka Helen Foster … [Read More]

Everything Good Dies Here: Tales from the Linker Universe and Beyond [forthcoming]

Introducing English readers to the speculative fiction of pseudonymous author Djuna, whose writings and interventions into internet culture have attracted a cult following in South Korea The stories brought together in this collection introduce for the first time in English the dazzling speculative imaginings of Djuna, one of South Korea’s most provocative SF writers. Whether … [Read More]

Yeonnam-Dong’s Smiley Laundromat [forthcoming]

Situated in a rapidly gentrifying district of Seoul, Yeonnam-Dong’s Smiley Laundromat is a place where the extraordinary stories of ordinary residents unfold. Furnished with a coffee machine, a full bookshelf, and warm lighting, it is a haven from the world for many locals. And when a notebook is left behind there, it becomes a place … [Read More]

The Black Orb [forthcoming]

A piercingly dark, surreal satire on mass panic, disaster response and modern masculinity One evening in downtown Seoul, Jeong-su is smoking a cigarette outside when he sees something impossible: a huge black orb appears out of nowhere and sucks his neighbour inside. The orb soon begins consuming other people and no one knows how to … [Read More]

We Do Not Part [forthcoming]

Han Kang’s first full-length novel in five years since HUMAN ACTS. Like HUMAN ACTS it has its heart a tragic human event – in this case the massacre of civilians in 1948 on Jeju Island – a place to which the protagonist of this novel journeys in the present, progressively haunted by the spirits of … [Read More]

Years and Years [forthcoming]

Three women—the old mother and her two daughters—contemplate their family life and their bottled-up feelings through the novel’s placating yet oddly unnerving prose. Years and Years is divided into four large chapters; the first unravels from the perspective of Sejin, younger daughter, the second from that of Youngjin, older daughter, the third from the mother’s, … [Read More]

Rina [forthcoming]

Rina is a defector from a country that might be North Korea, traversing an “empty and futile” landscape. Along the way, she is forced to work at a chemical plant, murders a few people, becomes a prostitute, runs a lucrative bar, and finds a solace in a motley family of wanderers all as disenfranchised as … [Read More]

Wafers [forthcoming]

This 2006 collection of short stories is in line with the unsettling, engrossing style of Ha’s other two collections that have been translated into English, the critical and commercial successes Flowers of Mold and Bluebeard’s First Wife. A best-seller in Korea, Ha Seong-nan is one of the stars of contemporary short fiction, writing edgy, socially conscious stories that … [Read More]

The New Seoul Park Jelly Massacre [forthcoming]

At New Seoul Park, Korea’s greatest theme park, an enigmatic man tempts visitors with a mysterious jelly candy that promises an unbreakable bond. As the sun beats down on a muggy summer afternoon, a child separated from her disinterested parents, a single mother striving to create a memorable day on a shoestring budget, and a couple on the … [Read More]