At once an ironic portrayal of contemporary Korea and an intimate exploration of heartache, alienation, and nostalgia, this collection of seven short stories has earned the author widespread critical acclaim. [Read More]
Booklist: Korean literature in translation (page 34)
A Grand Retreat and Other Plays
From the publisher’s website: This selection of plays offers an overview of Lee Gun-sam’s attempts to portray the socially-underprivileged people’s ‘heroic’ struggle to assert their human dignity in a society swarming with time-serving snobs and hypocrites. Lee Gun-sam’s heartstring was always attached to those who remain honest to themselves and fight for their moral principles. … [Read More]
Rat Fire: Korean Stories from the Japanese Empire
This volume brings together twelve short stories by colonial Korean proletarian writers, as well as two works written in 1946 under U.S. military occupation. The volume provides a diverse, ever-changing portrait of the complex movements of people and ideas that constituted both colonial Korea and the Japanese empire, adding the tumultuous experiences of those from … [Read More]
The Crane in the Clouds: Shijo: Korean Classical Poems in the Vernacular
From the publisher’s website: This anthology presents well over a hundred Korean classical poems known as shijo, in English translation. Shijo, a form of poetic composition still very much alive, has a tradition spanning a thousand years. One of the first historical anthologies of shijo in English, this book offers an overview of that uniquely … [Read More]
The Clowns
From the publisher’s website: 이 (爾) (The Clowns) by Kim Tae-woong premiered in 2000 and is today considered one of Korea’s most famous dramas. Awards include: Best Play by the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper; Best Production by the Organization of Korean Theaters, and Best Play by the Seoul Arts Festival. Mr. Kim was lauded as one … [Read More]
Mrs. Brown (Bi-lingual, Vol 45 – Avant Garde)
“Her husband stared at her coldly. She was disappointed to find that he was so inflexible. He was having trouble accepting the situation he was in as his own. Perhaps he resented the fact that white people like him, rather than people of color, were putting them through this ordeal. Or maybe he was just … [Read More]
Time in Gray (Bi-lingual, Vol 44 – Avant Garde)
“More than twenty years ago, for a short period, I was in love with a girl who was four years my senior and whose name was Su-mi. At the time I was going to an educational center that offered a course in Esperanto. There were two Americans in my class. One of them, Earl, was … [Read More]
On You (Bi-lingual, Vol 43 – Avant Garde)
Available on Kindle No synopsis available [Read More]
A Well in My Soul (Bi-lingual, Vol 42 – Avant Garde)
“It’s a lie that dogs bite people. That only happens because people train them too harshly. Dogs never voluntarily bite people. They bite only because they are trained to bite. Phrases like ‘son-of-a-bitch’ and ‘a dude like a dog’ or ‘worse than a dog’ aren’t curses. Because human beings are actually inferior to dogs. Dogs … [Read More]
Akeldama (Bi-lingual, Vol 41 – Avant Garde)
“What an unbearable hell. But I feel like I didn’t avoid it. I didn’t give up… I guess I can be proud that I managed to survive this hell. That’s right!” Judas was thinking about this, while he lost consciousness, trying to strain a few drops of honey and meanings from what he had just … [Read More]
In the Shade of the Oleander (Bi-lingual, Vol 40 – Tradition)
“There was a spoon in her room. It was a spoon she’d brought from home when she married. It was a brass spoon with its edge worn out and thinned like a crescent moon. That spoon was hung on the iron-ring handle of her bedroom door the first night she moved to her new home. … [Read More]
A Journey under the Moonlight (Bi-lingual, Vol 39 – Tradition)
“The man lifted his eyes up at the mound. In his mind he could see the corpse of his wife. She was flat on her back, stark naked, a dagger stuck in her groin. Because she had their first baby her stomach had looked unusually bloated. The man felt powerless as his lips parted and … [Read More]
The Fragrant Well (Bi-lingual, Vol 38 – Tradition)
No synopsis available Available on Kindle [Read More]
A Brief Biography of Yuja (Bi-lingual, Vol 37 – Tradition)
“Today is the day Chae Gwang-seok went away a hundred days ago, and Yu Jae-pil, the man who arranged for his headstone, will reunite with him on the other side of the river. ‘How’ve you been?’ ‘Welcome, brother. I’ve settled down in this neck of the woods and prepared the way for you. Say hello, … [Read More]
Three Days of Autumn, 1948 (Bi-lingual, Vol 36 – Tradition)
Not available at UK Amazon hence no Kindle version. No synopsis available [Read More]
Christmas Specials (Bi-lingual, Vol 35 – Seoul)
“A few days before Christmas, he was drinking coffee from a vending machine in the rest area of a library. He pulled out the fountain pen the woman had given him as a graduation present and started to jot down projected expenses for a Christmas date. Dinner: 20,000 won. Movie Tickets: 14,000 won. Present: 20,000 … [Read More]