For two years, chef Deuki Hong and writer Matt Rodbard gathered recipes, stories, in-the-moment photos and thoughtful interviews from Korean American neighborhoods all across the country. Koreatown: A Cookbook is their portrait of a culture, of a community that works hard, feeds generously and parties late and often. There are nearly two million people of … [Read More]
Archives: Books (page 33)
Rice Table: Korean Recipes and Stories to Feed the Soul
Rice Table | bap sang is a collection of 80 recipes showcasing modern, Korean home cooking. A Korean living in the UK, Su Scott was thrown into a crisis of identity when motherhood dawned, one which she only found her way out of by cooking the dishes of her Korean childhood, seeking out the flavours … [Read More]
All You Can Ever Know
This beloved memoir “is an extraordinary, honest, nuanced and compassionate look at adoption, race in America and families in general” (Jasmine Guillory, Code Switch, NPR) What does it means to lose your roots—within your culture, within your family—and what happens when you find them? Nicole Chung was born severely premature, placed for adoption by her Korean … [Read More]
A Living Remedy
From the bestselling author of ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW comes a searing memoir of family, class and grief—a daughter’s search to understand the lives her adoptive parents led, the life she forged as an adult, and the lives she’s lost. In this country, unless you attain extraordinary wealth, you will likely be unable to … [Read More]
Korean Film and History
Cinema has become a battleground upon which history is made―a major mass medium of the twentieth century dealing with history. The re-enactments of historical events in film straddle reality and fantasy, documentary and fiction, representation and performance, entertainment and education. This interdisciplinary book examines the relationship between film and history and the links between historical … [Read More]
DallerGut Dream Department Store
In a mysterious town that lies hidden in our collective subconscious, there’s a quaint little store where all kinds of dreams are sold . . . Day and night, visitors both human and animal from all over the world shuffle in sleepily in their pyjamas, lining up to purchase their latest adventure. Each floor in … [Read More]
The K-Wave On-Screen: In Words and Objects
The K-Wave On-Screen provides an engaging and accessible exploration of the meaning of ‘K-’ through the lens of words and objects in K-dramas and K-films. Once a small subculture known only to South Korea’s East Asian neighbours, the Korean Wave has exploded in popularity around the globe in the last decade. Its success has been … [Read More]
Forces of Nature: New Perspectives on Korean Environments
Bringing together a multidisciplinary conversation about the entanglement of nature and society in the Korean peninsula, Forces of Nature aims to define and develop the field of the Korean environmental humanities. At its core, the volume works to foreground non-human agents that have long been marginalized in Korean studies, placing flora, fauna, mineral deposits, and climatic conditions that … [Read More]
Wafers
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]
Rina
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]
Years and Years
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]
Stories of Yi Sang
Yi Sang, who wrote during the Japanese colonial period in Korea, is considered by many critics the first modernist Korean writer. While his total work amounts to less than one thousand pages, it remains one of the most influential bodies of work in Korean literature. Dalkey Archive is pleased to publish this selection of his … [Read More]
For That Which Cannot Be Restored
“I simply shrugged at her like a westerner, which did nothing to temper the bottled-up shame and simmering anger within me.” A cranky woman of letters ends up investigating after a story submitted for a writing competition at a government sponsored magazine is pulled from publication by its author, and in doing so finds a … [Read More]
Like A Barbie
“Met her again today. I finally got my hands on her, but still can’t believe what she put me through all that time. Attaching her face here. K-Bot.jpg” A story of a young student’s tribulations and those of the people around her which says a lot about the process of coming of age in contemporary Korean society … [Read More]
Walk With A Goddess
“Are you referring to the ‘strange and sorrowful coincidences’? That’s what I call them. I don’t know what you’ve heard, but they’re no ordinary, everyday thing, just so we’re clear.” A young woman rumoured to be possed of a strange supernatural ability and a young man take a walk. As she tells him her story … [Read More]
The Greatest Gamble On Earth
“If I had to choose the richest person whom I would call a friend, I would pick Han Seung-hui.” A reconnection with an old friend leads to an intriguing party invite with surprising results and, through this simple tale and the progress of a single relationship, but from separate and very different worlds, a deeper story is told of contemporary society and class. About the … [Read More]