Like many readers, we started the year with good intention of blitzing through the pile of new titles that were promised for the coming months, as well as making inroads into the backlog. And we genuinely got off to a good start with a string of fun K-thrillers, some of them new, some not: The … [Read More]
Author: Jeong You-jeong (정유정 1966-)
Selected publications by Jeong You-jeong
- Perfect Happiness (완전한 행복, 2021) tr Sean Lin Halbert, Creature 2025
- Seven Years of Darkness (7년의 밤, 2016) tr Kim Chi-young, Little Brown 2020
- The Good Son (종의 기원, 2016) tr Kim Chi-young, Little Brown 2018
August Literature Night: Seven Years of Darkness
The KCC’s Zoom literature night in August features the hottest thriller of the year. You can read LKL’s review of it here. The normal lottery-based system applies. Seven Years of Darkness by Jeong You-jeong Wednesday 26 August 2020, 7pm RSVP via the KCC’s website by 9 August. About the book A young girl is found … [Read More]
Book review: Jeong You-jeong – Seven Years of Darkness
Jeong You-jeong: Seven Years of Darkness Translated by Kim Chi-young Penguin / Little, Brown 2020 Originally published as 7년의 밤, EunHaeng NaMu Publishing Co, Seoul 2011 It felt like a long wait. We’d seen the movie adaptation a few years ago (Choo Chang-min’s Seven Years of Night, which screened at the London Korean Film Festival … [Read More]
Upcoming literature and fiction titles in 2020 [updated]
![Thumbnail for post: Upcoming literature and fiction titles in 2020 [updated]](https://i0.wp.com/londonkoreanlinks.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/upcoming-fiction.jpg?resize=120%2C120&ssl=1)
I’m hoping that, as in previous years, by posting my own list of upcoming literature and fiction titles – pulled together by some targeted searching on Amazon and a trawl through Barbara J Zitwer’s website – I might persuade others to supplement it from their own specialist knowledge. Whatever happens, books inevitably fall through the … [Read More]
A look back at some of the films of 2018
A wide variety of genres was presented to the London audience this year, from the return of the romantic melodrama (Be With You) to big budget fantasy (Along with the Gods). We also saw #MeToo beginning to have an impact, not just in the themes of movies such as Land of Seonghye and Testimony but … [Read More]
A look back at the 2018 literary year
A look back at the books and literary events of the year – and a summary of my reading diary. Literature in translation In translated fiction, my reading this year has not managed anywhere near to keep pace with the amount of translations being published. I know I said the same in respect of 2017 … [Read More]
Jeong You-jeong in conversation at Foyles
As part of Foyles’s Korean Culture Month, leading South-Korean author Jeong You-Jeong (Seven Years of Darkness) joins them for a discussion about her work and to read from her latest novel The Good Son. Yu-jin wakes up covered in blood. There’s no sign of a break in and there’s a body downstairs. It’s the body of someone … [Read More]
October literature night: The Good Son by Jeong You-Jeong
The Korean Literature Night (KLN) is a monthly discussion group that explores various themes and topics relating to that month’s chosen book. The October meeting will feature The Good Son by Jeong You-Jeong (LKL review here). Jeong You-jeong Wednesday 31st October, 19.00-21.00 Korean Cultural Centre UK Entrance Free – Booking Essential Apply to [email protected] or … [Read More]
Brief review: Jeong You-jeong – The Good Son
Jeong You-jeong: The Good Son Translated by Kim Chi-young Little, Brown Book Group, 2018, 322pp Originally published as 종의 기원, Eunhaengnamu, 2016 A Good Son is one of the books being hailed as the new Scandi Noir, while Amazon is billing it as “The bestselling Korean thriller of the year” – though in a Korean genre that … [Read More]
Guardian suggests Korean thrillers are the new Scandi Noir
It was not long ago that people were lamenting the absence of Korean genre fiction – such as crime and mystery stories – in translation. Well, apparently, things are changing. An article in Saturday’s Guardian talks about a “wave of interest in Korean thrillers” – highlighting the six-figure sum which bought Doubleday the right to … [Read More]
New and upcoming literature and fiction titles for 2018
From classic Joseon dynasty ghost stories, via historical fiction set in the reign of Queen Min, to the latest in translated literature, we take a look at some of the books to look forward to in 2018. Our look at non-fiction titles can be found here. Contemporary Korean literature in translation Hwang Sok-yong’s novel At … [Read More]