The astonishing story of one family swept up in the tides of the twentieth century, ranging from post-war Japan to suburban America and the North Korean regime One evening, ten-year-old Louisa and her father take a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town while her father Serk, … [Read More]
Archives: Books
Here is a listing of all the books in the LKL Book DataBase, in the order we happen to have uploaded them (most recent first). For listings in order of publication, visit the DataBase home page which will take you to individual subject listings.
Trust Exercise
Both inventive and shocking, Trust Exercise became a sensation on publication in the USA for its timely insights into sex, power and the nature of abuse. Sarah and David are in love – the obsessive, uncertain love of teenagers on the edge of adulthood. At their performing arts school, the rules are made by their magnetic drama … [Read More]
My Education
Regina Gottlieb had been warned about Professor Nicholas Brodeur long before arriving as a graduate student at his prestigious university high on a pastoral hill. He’s said to lie in the dark in his office while undergraduate women read couplets to him. He’s condemned on the walls of the women’s restroom, and enjoys films by … [Read More]
A Person of Interest
Professor Lee, an Asian-born mathematician near retirement age would seem the last person to attract the attention of FBI agents. Yet after a colleague becomes the latest victim of a serial bomber, Lee must endure the undermining power of suspicion and face the ghosts of his past. With its propulsive drive, vividly realized characters, and … [Read More]
American Woman
On the run for an act of violence against the American government, 25-year-old Jenny Shimada agrees to care for three younger fugitives whom a shadowy figure from her former radical life has spirited out of California. One of them, the kidnapped granddaughter of a wealthy newspaper magnate in San Francisco, has become a national celebrity … [Read More]
The Foreign Student
A young Korean man scarred by war finds unlikely love in the American South in National Book Award–winning author Susan Choi’s acclaimed debut novel. Tennessee, 1955. When Chuck Ahn arrives in Sewanee to begin his studies at the University of the South, he is shy and speaks English haltingly. On the subject of his earlier … [Read More]
North Korea: Toward a Better Understanding
We are told, time and again, that North Koreans are loyal to their leader, that they would do anything, even die for him, and that they are fiercely proud and nationalistic. But to an equal extent, we are told that they are oppressed, suffering, and ready to rise against the evil dictator. What do we … [Read More]
North Korea: A History (revised ed) [forthcoming]
North Korea is perhaps the most intriguing, infamous and enigmatic nation of our modern world. Yet how many of us know its full history, and how it came to be? How can we understand such a strange, isolated state? This new edition seeks to provide some answers to these questions. Starting with its origins in the … [Read More]
North Korea and South Korea: Monopolizing Nationalism in a Divided Peninsula [forthcoming]
The autocratic regimes in both North Korea and South Korea attempted to legitimize their rule through efforts in nation-building but achieved different results. North Korea and South Korea: Monopolizing Nationalism in a Divided Peninsula seeks to answer: How did these regimes’ nation-building strategies through a variety of tools and venues differ in the process of regime development? … [Read More]
Eyewitness Korea: The Experience of British and American Soldiers in the Korean War 1950-1953
Today the Korean War of 1950-1953 is overshadowed by later twentieth-century conflicts in Vietnam and the Middle East, yet at the time it was the focus of international attention. It threatened to lead to a third world war, and although fought on a limited scale, it still involved over a million men under UN command … [Read More]
Minbak [forthcoming]
The night the baby without a surname was born, the army rolled into his mother’s town Incheon, South Korea, 1985. The country is revolting against a dictatorship, but in the local boarding-house, the chaos inside is only just beginning. When Hana is pulled from school to work in her family’s minbak, all she wants is … [Read More]
A Love Story from the End of the World [forthcoming]
From the acclaimed author of Beasts of a Little Land and Reese’s Book Club pick City of Night Birds, an exquisite, globetrotting story collection about humans in precarious balance with the natural world. Spanning multiple locations and times, and rendered in fine detail and vivid color, this transportive, expansive collection shows what it means to … [Read More]
Oops, I Kidnapped a Pharaoh!
Kpop Demon Hunters fans will love this hilarious time-travel adventure starring famous historical figures as you’ve never seen them before. Join schoolgirl Skylar as she dances with Ancient Egypt’s King Tutankhamun, fangirls with Marie Curie & gives William Shakespeare a K-Beauty glow up. When Skylar and best friend Dana accept a ride in Nana’s new tuktuk, they … [Read More]
Skylar and the K-pop Headteacher
Fans of Kpop Demon Hunters will love this hilarious body swap school adventure for 8+ readers from Costa-winning author Luan Goldie. A joyful and uplifting tale of friendship, fandom and chasing your dreams, perfect for fans of Jenny Pearson, David Solomons and all things K-pop. When K-pop obsessed Skylar switches bodies with her super-old headteacher, she’s … [Read More]
From Koreanness to K-ness: Contemporary Korean Culture and Society [forthcoming]
From Koreanness to K-ness: Contemporary Korean Culture and Society aims to conceptualise ‘K-ness’ as a new way of understanding the underlying characteristics that shape the semiotic, cultural, and sociological representations of contemporary Korean culture and society. The global popularity of Korean cultural content has sparked extensive interest in various facets of the Korean language, culture, and … [Read More]
Korean Nuclear Diaspora: Redress Movements of Korean Atomic-bomb Victims in Japan
Korean Nuclear Diaspora: Redress Movements of Korean Atomic-bomb Victims in Japan comprehensively explores the history of Korean victims of the 1945 atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Following the bombings and Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, these Korean atomic-bomb victims dispersed across Japan, South Korea, and North Korea, and have often been left without any … [Read More]