Uzupis (on the other side of the river) is, in reality, a neighborhood in Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius, which took the peculiar step of declaring itself an independent republic in 1997. In this novel, however, it is the lost homeland of a middle-aged man named Hal, who lands in Lithuania hoping to travel back … [Read More]
Booklist: Korean literature in translation (page 30)
Scenes from the Enlightenment
Scenes from the Enlightenment: A Novel of Manners was published in 1939, toward the end of the Japanese colonial period in Korea, and depicts seemingly trivial events in the lives of the residents of a small town northeast of Pyongyang: a wedding between two local families, the arrival of box upon box of fascinating new … [Read More]
Pavane for a Dead Princess
Park Min-gyu has been celebrated and condemned for his attacks upon what he perceives as the humorlessness of contemporary Korean literature. Pavane for a Dead Princess is his attack upon the beauty-fetish that reigns over popular culture, detailing the relationship between a man with matinee-idol good looks and “the ugliest woman of the century.” To … [Read More]
The Square
This groundbreaking classic of Korean modernism tackles the shattering effect of the division of Korea. Taking place just before the Korean War, it follows its protagonist as he travels to the North hoping to escape what he sees as the repressive right-wing regime in the South…only to find that a different sort of lie reigns … [Read More]
Another Man’s City
Through a series of seemingly minor juxtapositions of the familiar and the strange, K, the protagonist of Another Man’s City, gradually realizes he is inside a Matrix-like reality, populated by shape-shifting characters, and is living a virtual-reality narrative manipulated by an entity referred to as both the “Invisible Hand” and “Big Brother.” From mundane and … [Read More]
Dishonored (K-Fiction 005)
The director had not contacted him since the last time they had spoken. Risking a violation, Black used the hot line only the high officials of his company were allowed to use. The person on the other line repeated the same answer to all his questions: he could not confirm anything at the moment, so … [Read More]
My Clint Eastwood (K-Fiction 004)
“Your movie premise was enjoyable, but it… it lacked something,” he suddenly said, his expression serious. It was then that I realized that he had read my movie pitch without asking for my permission. In retrospect, I realized that he had not been wide off the mark. I might have imitated some movies, but I … [Read More]
Hot Air Balloon (K-Fiction 003)
“Son, a young writer who made her debut as writer less than a few years ago, is aptly described by a line from Hot Air Balloon: ‘sympathetic toward other people’s grief and exercises great self-control.’ Through her sentences so equable and dry that they seem determined to banish all feelings they could carry, readers carefully … [Read More]
Arpan (K-Fiction 002)
No synopsis available Not readily available in the UK. [Read More]
Dinner with Buffett (K-Fiction 001)
This K-Fiction Series represents the brightest of young imaginative voices in contemporary Korean fiction. Each issue consists of a wide range of outstanding contemporary Korean short stories that the editorial board of Asia carefully selects each season. These stories are then translated by professional Korean literature translators, all of whom take special care to faithfully … [Read More]
What Has Yet to Happen (Bi-lingual, Vol 75 – Taboo and Desire)
Kong says if he had known about all of this ahead of time, he would have given up on things like preparing for employment earlier on, and traveled a lot and had slept with women to his heart’s content. Then all of a sudden he blurts out: “Do you know who’s the bitterest person in … [Read More]
Chopstick Woman (Bi-lingual, Vol 74 – Taboo and Desire)
The problem is that people can’t tell fiction from reality. How can a writer write only about the things she’s experienced firsthand? Don’t you agree? There’s always those who ask: “Is this your personal experience? How do you describe it so vividly?” So foolish! You must have gotten so many silly questions like that. Don’t … [Read More]
The Night Nobody Returns Home (Bi-lingual, Vol 73 – Taboo and Desire)
Her eyes drew to the dark gray jacket hung on the wall. The draped jacket made her imagine that only the old man’s exterior self had been left there, decent-enough on the surface, yet deprived of its soul. The effect seemed to be doubled by the black trousers hanging from under the jacket, as if … [Read More]
He Gave Me Roses of the Balkans (Bi-lingual, Vol 72 – Taboo and Desire)
The kids want to go too, and I can’t stand it anymore. If my mouth had not been full of coffee, I probably would have spat out, What? right there. I think it was from that moment on that I felt like I was in some sort of play whenever I was with my wife. … [Read More]
Drumbeat (Bi-lingual, Vol 71 – Taboo and Desire)
After saying goodbye to my old landlady, I wandered aimlessly around the streets of Nongol. I dropped by the Swan Coffee Shop for a cup of coffee and bought a few cigarettes from the women by the road. When dusk fell, I climbed up the hillside crowded with shanties. I couldn’t hear the sound of … [Read More]
Bloody-Sunday (Bi-lingual, Vol 70 – Discovering Everyday Life)
No synopsis available Available on Kindle [Read More]