Once, when she was coming back home from school late at night, she was strangled by a black shadow that approached her from behind on a narrow lane. When she collapsed to the ground, the black shadow momentarily hesitated, then pushed his hand up the girl’s upturned skirt. Using her school bag, she hit the … [Read More]
Booklist: Korean literature in translation (page 31)
The Canning Factory (Bi-lingual, Vol 68 – Discovering Everyday Life)
Synopsis not available from publishers. Available on Kindle, and in the Dalkey Archive collection of Pyun Hye-young stories, Evening Proposal. [Read More]
Truck (Bi-lingual, Vol 67 – Discovering Everyday Life)
No synopsis available Available on Kindle [Read More]
I Am Food (Bi-lingual, Vol 66 – Discovering Everyday Life)
No synopsis available Available on Kindle [Read More]
Puy, Thuy, Whatever (Bi-lingual, Vol 65 – Relationship)
No synopsis available. Available on Kindle [Read More]
Burying a Treasure Map at the U-turn (Bi-lingual, Vol 64 – Relationship)
Pretty impossible to find. Seoul Selection sells it, and you might pick up a copy elsewhere, but you’ll be lucky. [Read More]
Spring Afternoon, Three Widows (Bi-lingual, Vol 63 – Relationship)
No synopsis available Not available in the UK, but available on Amazon in the US at a huge markup. Try Seoul Selection. [Read More]
Rain, Sky, Wind, Port
From the publisher’s website: Kim Namjo’s dynamic use of sensual language and vibrant imagery portrays the subtlety of humanity and passion for religious life. Her work has received numerous awards and she has served as chair of the Korean Poet’s Association [Read More]
Love, Hopelessly (Bi-lingual, Vol 62 – Relationship)
Available on Kindle. No synopsis available [Read More]
Robbery Training (Bi-lingual, Vol 61 – Relationship)
No synopsis has been provided by the publisher [Read More]
I’ll be right there
Set in 1980s South Korea amid the tremors of political revolution, I’ll Be Right There follows Jung Yoon, a highly literate, 20-something-year-old woman, as she recounts her tragic personal history as well as those of her three intimate college friends. When Yoon receives a distressing phone call from her ex-boyfriend after eight years of separation, … [Read More]
I’m OK, I’m Pig!
From the publisher’s website: Kim Hyesoon is one of South Korea’s most important contemporary poets. She began publishing in 1979 and was one of the first few women in South Korea to be published in Munhak kwa jisong (Literature and Intellect), one of two key journals which championed the intellectual and literary movement against the US-backed military … [Read More]
The Shadow of Arms
The Shadow Of Arms examines the phenomenon of an intrinsically capitalist war: looking to expand their imperialistic market control to include the rest of Southeast Asia, America’s ‘Vietnamese intervention’ was considered to be the quickest, most efficient means of achieving this end. In essence, the war itself was a kind of business being conducted on … [Read More]
One Day, Then Another
From the publisher’s website: These poems give voice to the voiceless. His poetic task is to find a way to honor the weak and disenfranchised through small cautious steps into the cracks of this hidden world. Kim Kwang-Kyu’s most recent translation in English is The Depth of a Clam. He lives in Seoul, Korea. [Read More]
Shadows of the Void
From the publisher’s website: Ynhui Park’s poems are not difficult; they are usually simple and suggestive, inviting the reader to share an experience of some moment, some scene, in which the underlying void seems to have yielded to value and meaning…. His poems very often re-enact a search for consolation and peace, faced with the … [Read More]
The Investigation
Fukuoka Prison, 1944. Beyond the prison walls, the war rages. Inside, a man is found brutally murdered. What follows is a searing portrait of Korea before their civil war, and a testimony to the redemptive power of poetry. Watanabe Yuichi, a young guard with a passion for reading, is ordered to investigate a murder. The … [Read More]