Come Down to a Lower Place

Seul, a construction project manager, investigates a foul stench beneath the premier department store in Seoul. Hidden records from the building’s construction during the colonial era hint at madness. The only clue is a cryptic phrase: “Bin-o-jae.” Beneath the glittering showroom, she uncovers secrets tied not only to workers’ suffering and capitalism’s horrors, but to her own body.

Come Down to a Lower Place is part of the Lovecraft Reanimated project, where leading Korean speculative fiction writers reimagine the works of horror master H.P. Lovecraft. While honoring his eerie, grotesque imagery and the blurred boundaries between reality and fantasy, they update his ideas for a global audience.

YI SEOYOUNG began her literary career in 2012 with the short story THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. She has published two short story collections: THE TASTE OF CROCODILE and YUMI’S LOVER. Her short story GUIDING LINE received the Excellence Prize for Novella at the 2020 Korean SF Awards, followed by the Grand Prize for Novella in 2021 for THE BREATH OF THE JISINSA, and another Excellence Prize for Novella in 2022 for SUCH A SINGULAR HEART.

JANET HONG is a writer and translator based in Vancouver, Canada. She received the TA First Translation Prize and the LTI Korea Translation Award for her translation of Han Yujoo’s THE IMPOSSIBLE FAIRY TALE. She is a twotime winner of the Harvey Award for Best International Book for her translations of Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s GRASS and Yeong-shin Ma’s MOMS. Recent translations include Hwang Jungeun’s YEARS AND YEARS and Kwon Yeo-sun’s LEMON. She has been the Korean prose mentor for ALTA’s Emerging Translator Mentorship Program since 2020.

Source: publisher’s website