The tales in this book were originally translated by Homer B. Hulbert and James Scarth Gale, both of whom were missionary/scholars who arrived in Korea in the late 1880s. Hulbert published his tales in the magazine, “Korea Review” between 1902 and 1905 and Gale in the book “Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies” (1913). … [Read More]
Booklist: Korean literature in translation (page 33)
At Least we can Apologize
At Least We can Apologize focuses on an agency whose only purpose is to offer apologies–for a fee–on behalf of its clients. This seemingly insignificant service leads us into an examination of sin, guilt, and the often irrational demands of society. A kaleidoscope of minor nuisances and major grievances, this novel heralds a new comic … [Read More]
Our Happy Time
Already a wildly popular bestseller in South Korea, this gripping and passionate debut novel is a death row love story of crime, punishment, and forgiveness—vividly told by the exquisitely talented Gong Ji-young. Yu-Jung, beautiful, wealthy, and bright, is lying in her hospital bed, recovering from her third suicide attempt, when she receives a life-changing visit. … [Read More]
The Unforgotten War
But then, old wars never end. They simply fade away as old soldiers die off. One by one. Thus laments the veteran of the celebrated Battle of the Chosin Reservoir. The Korean War (June 1950 July 1953) is the first war that came to be known as the The Forgotten War . As the last … [Read More]
The Jovian Sayings
“Even though they sailed across the vast emptiness in spaceships and lived under a strange sky, it is not that they changed their nature also.” Thus observes Miriam Hahn, a Ganymedean historian of the 29th century, reviewing the history of the colonial societies on the Jovian system, paraphrasing Horace. The Jovian Sayings is a part … [Read More]
Highway with Green Apples
Award-winning Korean writer Bae Suah tells the story of a young woman in search of meaning as she considers her fate in modern Seoul. For this aspiring artist, there seems to be no escape from life’s monotony. After leaving her family under the pretense of having fallen in love, she resigns herself to a solitary … [Read More]
The Book Of Korean Poetry: Choson Dynasty
The Korean Book of Poetry: Choson Dynasty is a comprehensive anthology of Choson Dynasty (13921910) poetry, with translations of 600 plus poems, an introduction to the dynasty, essays on the various genres, notes on poems and poets, guides to original texts, bibliography and so on. An ideal textbook for students of premodern Korean literature, it … [Read More]
The Hen who Dreamed she could Fly
This is the story of a hen named Sprout. No longer content to lay eggs on command only to have them carted off to the market, she glimpses her future every morning through the barn doors, where the other animals roam free, and comes up with a plan to escape into the wild―and to hatch … [Read More]
No One Writes Back
Communication—or the lack thereof—is the subject of this sly update of the picaresque novel. No One Writes Back is the story of a young man who leaves home with only his blind dog, an MP3 player, and a book, traveling aimlessly for three years, from motel to motel, meeting people on the road. Rather than … [Read More]
Lonesome You
Well before her death in 2011, Park Wan-Suh had established herself as a canonical figure in Korean literature. Her work–often based upon her own personal experiences, and showing keen insight into divisive social issues from the Korean partition to the position of women in Korean society–has touched readers for over forty years. In this collection, … [Read More]
When Adam Opens His Eyes
First published in 1990, this is a sensational and highly controversial novel by one of Korea’s most electrifying contemporary authors. A preposterous coming-of-age story, melding sex, death, and high school in a manner reminiscent of some perverse collision between Georges Bataille and Beverly Cleary, the narrator of this book plows through contemporaneous Korean mores with … [Read More]
One Spoon on This Earth
An autobiographical novel that takes a life to pieces, “One Spoon on this Earth” stands a sort of digest of contemporary Korean history as it might be seen through the lens of one man’s life and opinions. [Read More]
A Most Ambiguous Sunday and Other Stories
Considered an eccentric in the traditional Korean literary world, Jung Young-moon s short stories have nonetheless won numerous readers both in Korea and abroad, most often drawing comparisons to Kafka. Adopting strange, warped, unstable characters and drawing heavily on the literature of the absurd, Jung s stories nonetheless do not wallow in darkness, despair, or … [Read More]
Stingray
Hailed by critics, “Stingray” has been described by its author as “a critical biography of my loving mother.” With his father having abandoned his family for another woman, Se-young and his mother are forced to subsist on their own in the harsh environment of a small Korean farming village in the 1950s. Determined to wait … [Read More]
The Soil
A major, never before translated novel by the author of “Muj?ng / The Heartless”–often called the first modern Korean novel–“The Soil” tells the story of an idealist dedicating his life to helping the inhabitants of the rural community in which he was raised. Striving to influence the poor farmers of the time to improve their … [Read More]
The House with a Sunken Courtyard
An occasionally terrifying and always vivid portrayal of what it was like to live as a refugee immediately after the end of the Korean War. [Read More]