Paek Nam-nyong’s Friend is a tale of marital intrigue, abuse, and divorce in North Korea. A woman in her thirties comes to a courthouse petitioning for a divorce. As the judge who hears her statement begins to investigate the case, the story unfolds into a broader consideration of love and marriage. The novel delves into … [Read More]
Booklist: Korean literature in translation (page 16)
The Law of Lines
The Law of Lines follows the parallel stories of two young women whose lives are upended by sudden loss. When Se-oh, a recluse still living with her father, returns from an errand to find their house in flames, wrecked by a gas explosion, she is forced back into the world she had tried to escape. … [Read More]
Tales of the Strange by a Korean Confucian Monk: Kŭmo sinhwa by Kim Sisŭp
One of the most important and celebrated works of premodern Korean prose fiction, Kŭmo sinhwa (New Tales of the Golden Turtle) is a collection of five tales of the strange artfully written in literary Chinese by Kim Sisŭp (1435–1493). Kim was a major intellectual and poet of the early Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1897), and this book … [Read More]
Umma’s Table
Following his acclaimed English language debut Uncomfortably Happily, Yeon-sik Hong returns with a graphic novel that is as insightful as wrenching as it probes life with aging parents and how we support the people we love. A new father named Madang, moves to a quiet cottage in the countryside with his wife and young baby. … [Read More]
Whale and Vapor
The poems in WHALE AND VAPOR emphasize exhaustion—physically, mentally, and as an existential condition. Kim Kyung Ju playfully turns toward the lyric in this work as a way to reconcile himself with the contemporary world by engaging in dialogue with his Korean literary ancestry. Masterfully translated by Jake Levine in close conversation with the author, … [Read More]
We, At the End of the World (K-Poet 12)
From the Kyobo bookstore website, fed through Papago Translate: Me and you holding hands in the end of the world. a new collection of poems by Yang An-da, “We, At the End of the World” “K-Poet” series introduces the essence of Korean poetry that you always want to read next to you. Over time, Korean … [Read More]
Deep Work (K-Poet 11)
As this is a recent publication by Asia Publishers, it’s hard to find outside of Korea. The following description is from the Korean listing on the Kyobo website, fed through the Google translation engine: Remembering the sadness of that day that will never be forgotten Ahn Hyun-mi’s new poetry collection Deep Work The ‘K-Poet’ series … [Read More]
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
Kim Jiyoung is a girl born to a mother whose in-laws wanted a boy. Kim Jiyoung is a sister made to share a room while her brother gets one of his own. Kim Jiyoung is a female preyed upon by male teachers at school. Kim Jiyoung is a daughter whose father blames her when she … [Read More]
b, Book, and Me
Best friends b and Rang are all each other have. Their parents are absent, their teachers avert their eyes when they walk by. Everyone else in town acts like they live in Seoul even though it’s painfully obvious they don’t. When Rang begins to be bullied horribly by the boys in baseball hats, b fends … [Read More]
The Black Room (K-Fiction 026)
As this is an Asia Publishers title, it’s pretty difficult to obtain outside of Korea. Text from the listing on the Kyobo website, fed through the Papago translation engine: 99 Years of Life, Unfinished Battle In January 2020, Jeong Ji-ah’s “Black Room” was published as the 26th installment of K-fiction. Jung Ji-ah was born in … [Read More]
The Only Child
A serial killer whose gruesome murders shook the world but who has steadfastly remained silent. Until now. A young, innocent looking stepdaughter from her husband’s previous marriage, who unexpectedly turns up at the door after the sudden death of her grandparents. Both are unsettling. Both are deeply troubled. And both seem to want something from … [Read More]
Untold Night and Day
A hypnotic, disorienting story of parallel lives unfolding over a day and a night in the sweltering heat of Seoul’s summer For two years, twenty-eight-year-old Kim Ayami has worked at Seoul’s only audio theatre for the blind. But now the theatre is shutting down and Ayami’s future is uncertain. Her last shift completed and the … [Read More]
Butterfly Sleep
From the publisher’s website: Kim Kyung Ju’s allegorical drama Butterfly Sleep refracts a critique of South Korea’s headlong development through a mixture of magic realism and absurdist dark humor set early in the Joseon dynasty. With lyricism and grace, Kim unfolds a lesson of consolation by confrontation, and finally reconciliation, with the ghosts of the … [Read More]
Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River
A literary meandering into the mythology of place and what a novel can be, inspired by the author’s time spent at an artist residency in small-town Texas. In his inimitable, recursive, meditative style that reads like a comedic zen koan but contains universes, Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River recounts Korean cult writer’s Jung … [Read More]
I Gave the Sun a Long Look (K-Poet 10)
From the Kyobo website via Google Translate: The first Korean-English poet’s gaze covering all of Korea’s leading poets Lee Young-gwang’s new poem book I Gave the Sun a Long Look The ‘K-Poet’ series is intended to be distributed to the domestic and foreign markets after extracting the essence of Korean poetry that you always want … [Read More]
A Ghost Poet (K-Poet 09)
From the Kyobo bookstore website via Papago translate: The first Korean-English translation of a Korean poet A new collection of poems by poet Kim Joong-il “K-Poet” series, which aims to select the essence of Korean poetry and translate it into English and serve it to domestic and foreign markets. It represents the only Korean-English translation … [Read More]