With shades of Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice and Choi Jin-young’s Hunger, Employee No. 9 runs a psychological gauntlet of money, power, personal responsibility, and the daily struggle for survival. No. 9 is in trouble. His son’s college tuition is coming due, his wife needs surgery after taking double shifts at a grocery store, the … [Read More]
Booklist: Literature Fiction and Poetry (page 2)
On the Balance Beam [forthcoming]
Once Ko Mani dreamt of becoming a professional gymnast. Life, however, had other plans for her. Today she has an office job and lives with her parents in the same house and poor part of Seoul in which she grew up. When she unexpectedly finds herself out of work, however, her old ambitions resurface. At … [Read More]
The Pain Chasers [forthcoming]
International Booker Prize-shortlisted Bora Chung creates a remarkably fresh dystopia-within-a-utopia that explores the inextricable link between humanity and suffering. Kyobo bookstore synopsis run through Microsoft’s translation engine: A new work by author Bora Chung, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Cursed Bunny and shocked readers not only in Korea but also around the … [Read More]
Bonobo [forthcoming]
Jin-yi devotes her life to the study of primates. One evening, she helps rescue a bonobo who has escaped from a burning villa. While holding her on her lap in the car taking them back to the Primate Study Center, an accident throws her through the windshield and a strange fusion takes place: while her … [Read More]
Memoir of a Joseon Bride [forthcoming]
The stories brought together in this collection introduce the dazzling speculative imaginings of Djuna, one of South Korea’s most provocative science-fiction writers. Whether describing how a species of interplanetary machines brings Korea’s North-South divide into the heavens or satirizing the vampiric nature of Confucian patriarchy, these stories evoke a universe at once familiar and clearly … [Read More]
American Hagwon [forthcoming]
Min Jin Lee, the acclaimed author of Pachinko, returns with a breathtaking contemporary epic that follows one family as they reckon with personal dreams and familial duty. John and Helen Koh and their three children – Bo, DH and Mido – are building new lives in Korea when they find their worlds upended, first by … [Read More]
Not Yet Gods [forthcoming]
Following the landmark English-language publication of Everything Good Dies Here, Kaya Press delivers more provocative thought experiments by pseudonymous author Djuna, whose writings on internet culture have attracted a cult following in South Korea. Not Yet Gods explores the universe-shattering effects of teenage anger cross-pollinated with radiation-induced psychic powers, unscrupulous governments and corporate avarice. In the aftermath of … [Read More]
Mothersucker [forthcoming]
A chilling international debut following a grieving mother’s transformation into a vampire who targets men who have harmed women—in the present, past, and future—and the female-led task force entrusted with the murder investigation On top of a mountain in Korea, buried underneath a mound of soil, 51-year-old Geum-hong wakes up transformed. Her senses are vivid, … [Read More]
A Plagued Sea [forthcoming]
Visionary Korean author Kim Bo-young unleashes a Lovecraftian nightmare of infection, transformation, and abomination. “[Kim Bo-young’s] fiction is a breathtaking piece of a cinematic art.” –Bong Joon-ho, Academy Award-winning director of Parasite While waiting for a train to Haewon, an isolated Korean seaside village, bodyguard Mu-young gets a disaster alert on her phone. TVs throughout the … [Read More]
Song for Another Home [forthcoming]
A powerful and expansive story of one family separated by the Korean War, for fans of Pachinko and Homegoing 1950, Pyongyang. Oksoon’s father – confident that the war is over – has left for Seoul in search of opportunity. There is nothing to do but wait, until the Chinese army attacks and forces Oksoon, her mother and her … [Read More]
That Summer’s End: Poems [forthcoming]
One hundred and six poems of self-reflection and exquisite beauty—an intoxicating blend of Seon Buddhism and French symbolism, and the first poetry collection from this essential South Korean author to appear in English That summer I stood in the centers of storms That summer my despair burst out into crimson but still I weathered the … [Read More]
Hello Baby [forthcoming]
A cult feminist hit in South Korea, Hello Baby is a gripping and intimate portrait of motherhood, fertility and womanhood for fans of Butter and Breasts and Eggs. Outside the chat, they had different jobs, personalities, financial backgrounds, but inside, they were all mothers-to-be anxiously awaiting their babies. In a group chat called ‘Hello Baby’, … [Read More]
Plant Lady [forthcoming]
A chilling psychological horror tale of a green-fingered serial killer. Will you dare to disrespect her plants? Moving on from a traumatic experience, Yoohee has opened up her own Plant Shop to start afresh. Rows of plants, meticulously arranged like soldiers, thrive under her green fingers; sunlight filters through the windows at just the right … [Read More]
Everything Happened at Once [forthcoming]
What is the date today? Here, time doesn’t pass in days. I wouldn’t be surprised if spring slid straight into summer, if I looked at a clear lake and saw an old woman in my reflection. A mutant virus has swept half of the world’s population overnight. The known world has collapsed. The new world … [Read More]
The Seoul Letter Shop
A touching testament to the power of letter writing and connecting with strangers, for fans of Days at the Morisaki Bookshop and What You’re Looking For is in the Library. Hyoyoung feels trapped in her small hometown after her dreams of becoming a film maker are dashed. When a friend asks if she can take … [Read More]
Sublimation
When you emigrate, you leave a version of yourself behind. Literally. One instance crosses the border; the other instance stays trapped behind it. Some instances keep in touch, call each other daily, synchronize their lives and minds in the hopes of reintegrating and resuming a life as one person. Other instances, like Soyoung Rose Kang, … [Read More]