London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

LKL book database logo

Walking Practice

Author:
Translated by:
Publisher: , 2023
Original title: 보행 연습, 2022
Link to online store *

Squid Game meets The Left Hand of Darkness meets Under the Skin in this radical literary sensation from South Korea about an alien’s hunt for food that transforms into an existential crisis about what it means to be human.

After crashing their spacecraft in the middle of nowhere, a shapeshifting alien find themself stranded on an unfamiliar planet and disabled by Earth’s gravity. To survive, they will need to practice walking. And what better way than to hunt for food? As they discover, humans are delicious.

Intelligent, clever, and adaptable, the alien shift their gender, appearance, and conduct to suit a prey’s sexual preference, then attack at the pivotal moment of their encounter. They use a variety of hunting tools, including a popular dating app, to target the juiciest prey and carry a backpack filled with torturous instruments and cleaning equipment. But the alien’s existence begins to unravel one night when they fail to kill their latest meal.

Thrust into an ill-fated chase across the city, the alien is confronted with the psychological and physical tolls their experience on Earth has taken. Questioning what they must do to sustain their own survival, they begin to understand why humans also fight to live. But their hunger is insatiable, and the alien once again targets a new prey, not knowing what awaits. . . .

Dolki Min’s haunting debut novel is part psychological thriller, part searing critique of the social structures that marginalize those who are different—the disabled, queer, and nonconformist. Walking Practice uncovers humanity in who we consider to be alien, and illuminates how alienation can shape the human experience.

Walking Practice features 21 black-and-white line drawings throughout.

Source: publisher’s website

There’s also this announcement on Barbara J Zitwer’s Facebook page:

The astounding debut novel, Walking Practice, by Korean author Dolki Min pre-empted by Tara Parsons for HarperVIA Books! Translated by the brilliant Victoria Caudle and coming to readers in 2023 in English. The reading world will never be the same!

As for the plot, here’s Barbara J Zitwer again, in Bookbrunch

My latest challenge is a book called Practise Walking by Dolki Min, a self-published Korean queer, literary novel about a gender-bending alien who crashes to earth and hunts humans for food. It changes gender to appeal to its victim, has sex with them, and at their moment of orgasm, bites their heads off. This alien is only trying to survive and practise walking in the earth’s atmosphere, where gravity is a disabling force. It’s the hottest book that nobody has read yet.

Sounds fun!

LKL says:

| deliciously wicked but thought-provoking title about a gender-fluid alien: the audiobook performed by Nicky Endres is one of the best things you’ll ever listen to

LKL rating: score-2score-2score-2score-2score-0

External links:

* Where the book is available from a number of sources, they are prioritised as follows: (1) Amazon UK site, or Bookshop.org for the more recent uploads (2) Amazon US site (3) Other sites in US or Europe, including second-hand outlets (4) LTI Korea, where the title is advertised as available from there (5) Onlines stores in Korea. Links to Bookshop.org and Amazon UK site contain an affiliate code which, should you make a purchase, gives a small commission to LKL at no additional cost to you.