A disquieting vision of ecological dystopia in a collection by a major Korean writer. An artist is plagued by desire for her mysterious double as disease spreads through an uncanny suburban landscape. An elderly woman suspects the old man who lifts weights in her neighborhood playground of being responsible for a spate of murders. While … [Read More]
Booklist: Literature Fiction and Poetry (page 11)
I’ll write again tomorrow
May my poetry not lean on plausible deniability, may it not mask or embellish the present me with the past me that has already passed. I hope the things I get angry about don’t harden into conventions, and I hope the things I love are written down waiting to be deepened. From“ Poet’s Essay” He … [Read More]
Love Songs Sung with the Body
I want to love, I want to hug, I want to be together, I want to be together and look at the same place, but it doesn’t work out. It seems to work but it doesn’t, it seems to work but it doesn’t work. It’s not just an erotic relationship. The appearance of thirst among … [Read More]
The Governor’s Case File
In a peaceful village in Joseon Korea, the newly appointed governor is startled to learn that all the butterflies have disappeared. He proceeds to investigate the peculiar case in this poignant short story that is at once historical fiction and cozy mystery. On a peaceful spring day, the young governor is looking forward to a … [Read More]
A Century of Queer Korean Fiction
Following decades of LGBTQ+ activism, South Korea has seen a flowering of queer literature, film, and Internet culture. Many openly gay, lesbian, transgender, and other queer Korean writers find themselves in the national and international spotlight. But the rich variety of queer representation also extends into the Korean past, as this volume illustrates. Beginning with … [Read More]
Parting After Parting (K- Poet 34)
Poet Jang Seok-won’s “Farewell After Farewell” in K-Poet Series, Songs that Begin with Revolution and Love Once Again Poet Jang Seok-won’s sixth collection of poems, 『Farewell After Farewell』, a poet who loves music and poetry, has been published in the 34th volume of the K-Poet Series. In 2002, the poet joined the Korea Daily (now … [Read More]
Rock Is Thunder (K-Poet 35)
Poet Lee Jae-hoon’s “Stones Are Thunder” Lending Tears to the Silent Poet Lee Jae-hoon’s fifth collection of poems, “Stones Are Thunder,” will be published as the 35th volume of the K-Poet series. Poet Lee Jae-hoon began his career in 1998 with Contemporary Poetry and has published poetry collections such as My First Report on the … [Read More]
The Consultant
Sometimes work can be murder… The Consultant is very good at his job. He creates simple, elegant, effective solutions for… restructuring. Nothing obvious or messy. Certainly nothing anyone would ever suspect as murder. The ‘natural deaths’ he plans have always gone well: a medicine replaced here, a mechanism jammed there. His performance reviews are excellent. … [Read More]
The Whisper of the Breeze from Pine Trees and Flowing Streams
On the day of her orientation ceremony to start university, Jaun runs into the young Monk Hyegang, an old friend, who has a gift for her, a rosary, from his guardian, Monk Dasol. Upon thanking him for the gift, Jaun is surprised and curious to learn this great monk has been watching her from afar … [Read More]
Can’t I go instead?
From the author of The Picture Bride, two women’s lives and identities are intertwined — through World War II and the Korean War — revealing the harsh realities of class division in the early part of the 20th century. Can’t I Go Instead follows the lives of the daughter of a Korean nobleman and her maidservant in … [Read More]
DallerGut Dream Department Store
In a mysterious town that lies hidden in our collective subconscious, there’s a quaint little store where all kinds of dreams are sold . . . Day and night, visitors both human and animal from all over the world shuffle in sleepily in their pyjamas, lining up to purchase their latest adventure. Each floor in … [Read More]
Same Bed Different Dreams
A wild, sweeping novel that imagines an alternate secret history of Korea and the traces it leaves on the present—loaded with assassins and mad poets, RPGs and slasher films, pop bands and the perils of social media In 1919, far-flung patriots establish the Korean Provisional Government to protest the Japanese occupation of their country. This … [Read More]
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop
There was only one thing on her mind. I must start a bookshop. Yeong-ju did everything she was supposed to, go to university, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. Burned out, Yeong-ju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, divorces her husband, and follows her dream. She … [Read More]
The Owl Cries
From the Shirley Jackson Award–winning author of The Hole, a slow-burning noir thriller with a touch of horror and the uncanny. A lawyer asking questions. A disappearance. And a vast forest in the mountains—the western woods—where the trees huddle close together, emanating a crushing darkness, while a chill dampness fills the air. The forester, Bak … [Read More]
Indeterminate Inflorescence
“Poetry is the restoration of the whole through details. Think of it as making a sketch of a face only briefly seen. Just as one puts together a shattered skull or an earthenware pot, poetry is the creation of the pieces that go in the spots where the original pieces are missing.” Indeterminate Inflorescence is a … [Read More]
Ancient, Medieval, and Premodern Korean Songs and Poems: An Historical Anthology, With Parallel Texts in Korean and English
This historical anthology of Korean poetry, Ancient, Medieval, and Premodern Korean Songs and Poems highlights the evolution of poetic composition in the vernacular. The book is a manifesto of the uniquely Korean poetic tradition, which flourished quite separately along with the literary tradition retained by the men of letters devoted to the scholarship in classical Chinese. The … [Read More]