From J. M. Lee, a bestselling phenomenon in Korea, comes a haunting and mind-bending novel about the revolutionary possibilities of AI and the infinite mysteries of what it means to be human. In the virtual city of Alegria, fantasies are made real, innumerable lifetimes are lived, and even death itself is a survivable experience. An … [Read More]
Booklist: Literature Fiction and Poetry (page 4)
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever
One of the most famous poets in Korea, Kim Yeong-nang spent most of his life in Gangjin county, Jeolla province, in the southern part of Korea. He wrote 86 poems and published 2 books in his lifetime. Though he was a noted performer of traditional Korean music he also loved classical Western music and was … [Read More]
Dark Miracle (K-poet 47)
This book is an English collection of twenty poems translated from Jeong Hyun-woo’s 검은 기적. In this volume, the poet traces the world of lingering light and shifting forms as he passes through the absence of his beloved mother, remembering from the lowest and most enduring place of the heart. Memories bound to the body-like … [Read More]
A Love Story from the End of the World
From the acclaimed author of Beasts of a Little Land and Reese’s Book Club pick City of Night Birds, an exquisite, globetrotting story collection about humans in precarious balance with the natural world. Spanning multiple locations and times, and rendered in fine detail and vivid color, this transportive, expansive collection shows what it means to … [Read More]
Perfect Happiness
In this propulsive thriller, master of crime and suspense fiction You-Jeong Jeong, author of The Good Son, takes us to the Korean countryside in a domestic nightmare centered around the life and goals of Yuna Shin: wife, mother, sister–and covert narcissist. Everyone in Yuna’s life knows to tread carefully in her presence. Her husband dreads the … [Read More]
A Midnight Pastry Shop Called Hwawoldang
When twenty-seven-year-old Yeon-hwa loses her grandmother, enigmatic proprietor of the Hwawoldang, she decides to respect her wishes by keeping the store going for at least a month, between the hours of 10pm and midnight. She has never learnt to make the traditional desserts herself, and hopes to learn more about her grandmother. On her very … [Read More]
The Moon Glow Bookshop
What if you could turn the pages of your own life, like the pages of your favourite book? Somewhere along the ordinary alleys you pass by every day, a mysterious shop appears between all the other familiar buildings. Surely, you didn’t see it yesterday or the day before. A large sign reads ‘The Moon Glow … [Read More]
Vestiges of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea: A Translation of the Samguk yusa
Vestiges of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea (Samguk yusa) is the first annotated English translation of one of the most important premodern Korean historical texts. One of only two surviving works on the Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE–668) and Greater Silla (668–936), the Samguk yusa is a rich collection of historical, supernatural, and mythical stories, including one of … [Read More]
Supernatural Encounters in South Korea
Twenty years of whispered stories, haunted places, restless spirits, and things that linger where history runs deep. These are real claims from real people across Korea. Read, wonder, and decide for yourself. Over the past twenty-plus years, folk heritage researcher Shawn Morrissey has collected paranormal claims from across South Korea. The creepiest and most intriguing … [Read More]
Petty Lies
For readers who revelled in the toxic obsession of Butter and the addictive horror of Bat Eater Dear Jiwon, I’m writing to you regarding the murder of your son… Revenge is perhaps best served by letter. But letters get answered. And when a young tutor takes up the pen to write to her former employer … [Read More]
Blood for the Undying Throne
Nothing can stop the Empire’s insatiable conquest. Not gods, not dragons, not armies. But heroes still rise. The Empire continues to enforce its so-called peace with massive war machines that destroy anything that opposes their might. Though the conquered are wholly at the mercy of the Empire, desperate odds such as these can be fertile … [Read More]
From Being to Being
Characterized by genius wordplay, Oh Eun’s poems play with homophones and homonyms while keeping the wit, criticalness, and beauty we associate with Korean poetry. In their sonic play, Oh Eun’s poems bounce dangerously on a tightrope of language. These are poems that in their content and form simultaneously expand the boundaries of language and delight, … [Read More]
Island Ablaze and Other Stories
Island Ablaze and Other Stories is an anthology of thirteen stories—eleven from South Korea and two from North Korea—about their complicated relationships with their most important ally and enemy: the United States. Set in times ranging from colonial Korea to the new millennium, these stories offer a look into the many ways that the US empire shapes … [Read More]
No Hand Held Mine
An elderly Korean woman talking about being forced into sexual slavery during World War II. A modern Korean woman extricating herself from a failing relationship with an artist. Award-winning South Korean writer Kim Soom presents us with portraits of two women who couldn’t be more different but who both show resilience and compassion. No Hand Held … [Read More]
Flatfish: Poems
In his poetry collection, Flatfish, Moon Tae-jun offers an aesthetic that emphasizes the author’s exploration of the inner self. At times sparse and allusive, his poems use blank space and other stylistic considerations to convey a voice and thought that ranges from the contemplative to the surreal and absurd. Moon’s poems suggest Buddhist ideologies, natural images, … [Read More]
Capitalists Must Starve
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]