Winner of the 2018 Hankyoreh Literature Award This work is a fictional account of real-life labour activist, Kang Juryong, who led a strike at the Pyongwon rubber factory in 1930s Pyongyang to protest working conditions. Set against the backdrop of Japanese-occupied Korea, Capitalists Must Starve follows a sharp-tongued, big-hearted heroine who dares to love, rebel, … [Read More]
Booklist: Korean literature in translation (page 4)
Midnight Timetable
From the author and translator of the National Book Award finalist and Booker Prize shortlisted Cursed Bunny, comes a new novel-in-ghost-stories, set in a mysterious research center that houses cursed objects, where those who open the wrong door might find it’s disappeared behind them, or that the echoing footsteps they’re running from are their own… The acclaimed Korean … [Read More]
Soyangri Book Kitchen
Welcome to Soyangri Book Kitchen In a peaceful village in the countryside, far from the bustling heart of Seoul, lies a book lovers’ paradise. With its wafts of delicious food and book-filled shelves, Soyangri Book Kitchen is dotingly managed by its plucky proprietor Yoojin. Her aim? To create a sanctuary for weary souls like herself. … [Read More]
Alien Gods
Minsuh, an anthropology student researching shamanistic rituals and the mudangs who perform them, has dismissed the supernatural her whole life. To her, mudangs are performers skilled at pleasing researchers. But as she gets deeper into her research, she’s afflicted with a mysterious shinbyeong — a holy sickness unique to Korea — causing her to start … [Read More]
The Call of the Friend
University student Wonjun visits his friend Jingu’s basement apartment, only to find unsettling changes that are somehow tied to a K-pop star’s suicide. Jingu behaves coldly, a strange statue looms in the corner, and reality begins to fracture. Blurring the lines between hallucination and nightmare, this graphic novel by JaeHoon Choi explores guilt and despair … [Read More]
Come Down to a Lower Place
Seul, a construction project manager, investigates a foul stench beneath the premier department store in Seoul. Hidden records from the building’s construction during the colonial era hint at madness. The only clue is a cryptic phrase: “Bin-o-jae.” Beneath the glittering showroom, she uncovers secrets tied not only to workers’ suffering and capitalism’s horrors, but to … [Read More]
Seeking You
Jeong Ho-seung’s Seeking You, translated from Korean by Brother Anthony of Taizé, explores human existence through an interconnectivity to nature and the cosmos. His poems foster a poetic voice that is filled with child wonder and aged wisdom—an approach that extends both humor and analytical depth. Seeking You stands as a testament to a poet’s … [Read More]
Art on Fire
A darkly humorous and compelling satire of the art world from the author of The Disaster Tourist. An Yiji’s career had been stalling for some time when a representative of the illustrious Robert Foundation offers her a spot on their all-expenses-paid artist residency in California. The residency has launched many famous artists’ careers, so she knows … [Read More]
The Crustacean
The year’s most spiky and powerful novella “When I was 13 I knew nothing about anything. I only cared about love. And the older man, who I thought I fell in love with, never told me he was divorced. I made that up on my own.” Chichirim is a plain 13-year-old girl. An ordinary, misunderstood, … [Read More]
Break Room
A gripping and incisive psychological drama from the internationally bestselling author of DallerGut Dream Department Store. Eight unsuspecting people receive an invitation to participate in a mysterious new reality show called Break Room. But what starts as an opportunity to find fame is quickly revealed to be something far more unsettling when they learn how … [Read More]
The Midnight Shift
A bestseller in Korea, a biting, fast-paced vampire murder mystery exploring queer love and the consequences of loneliness. When four isolated elderly people die back-to-back at the same hospital by jumping out of the sixth-floor window, Su-Yeon doesn’t understand why she’s the only one at her precinct that seems to care. But her colleagues at … [Read More]
Roadkill
An effervescent speculative short story collection by South Korean author Amil for the next generation who crave a fresh perspective. With strong roots in feminist science fiction and fantasy, Roadkill is for the next generation of readers of speculative fiction who love to be transported to different worlds but also crave a fresh perspective. Featuring … [Read More]
Zero: Four Modern Plays
Where is the line? Was there ever a line? Between time-between space-between circumstance. This dreamlike theme reverberates throughout ZERO. ZERO Four Modern Plays is a collection of four plays by Playwright Sue Ja Joo. Each of these searingly brilliant plays form an integrated structure, each with its own message. Night Picture of Rain Sound, bridges … [Read More]
Hakuda Photo Studio
Have you ever been on a summer holiday so good you never want to go home again? Jebi is tired of noisy, crowded Seoul and her dull job at a photography studio in the city. When she sees a billboard on her commute showing beautiful Jeju Island, she decides to quit her job and spend … [Read More]
A Twist of Fate
Two women meet on a train. Each is running from a deadly secret. When one disappears, the other decides to take her place—for better, or for worse. Jae-Young has just left everything she’s ever known, not that it was much: her thankless job, her infested apartment, and her abusive boyfriend—who happens to be dead on … [Read More]
Chinatown
In this emblematic selection of her stories, Oh Jung-hee probes beneath the surface of seemingly quotidian lives to expose nightmarish family configurations warped by desertion, psychosis, and death. In ‘Chinatown’ a young girl living on the edge of the city’s Chinese community comes of age among mundane violences, collisions with adult sexuality and the American … [Read More]