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Booklist: Literature Fiction and Poetry (page 44)

First Person Sorrowful

by tr Brother Anthony of Taizé, Lee Sang-wha pub Bloodaxe (2012)

From the publisher’s website: Introduction by Sir Andrew Motion Ko Un has long been a living legend in Korea, both as a poet and as a person. Allen Ginsberg once wrote, ‘Ko Un is a magnificent poet, combination of Buddhist cognoscente, passionate political libertarian, and naturalist historian.’ When a writer has published as much as … [Read More]

Black Flower

by tr Charles La Shure pub Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2012)

In 1904, as the Russo-Japanese War deepened, Asia was parceled out to rising powers and the Korean empire was annexed by Japan. Facing war and the loss of their nation, more than a thousand Koreans left their homes to seek possibility elsewhere—in unknown Mexico. After a long sea voyage, these emigrants—thieves and royals, priests and … [Read More]

Modern Korean Literature — An Anthology 1908-65

ed Chung Chong-wha pub Routledge (2012)

The sixth book in Kegan Paul International’s “Korean Culture Series”, this volume contains thirty stories that have been selected on the basis of historical interest and literary worth, each representing a monumental moment in the history of Korean Literature. The ten stories in the first part share the common theme of the Korean experience of … [Read More]

Seven Contemporary Plays from the Korean Diaspora in the Americas

ed Esther Kim Lee pub Duke University Press (2012)

From the publisher’s website: Showcasing the dynamism of contemporary Korean diasporic theater, this anthology features seven plays by second-generation Korean diasporic writers from the United States, Canada, and Chile. By bringing the plays together in this collection, Esther Kim Lee highlights the themes and styles that have enlivened Korean diasporic theater in the Americas since … [Read More]

The Place Where the Harmonium Was (Bi-lingual, Vol 12 – Women)

by tr Agnita Tennant pub Asia Publishers (2012)

This is a bilingual edition of award winning author Shin Kyung-sook (신경숙)’s The Place Where the Harmonium Was (풍금이 있던 자리). “In that context, the blind calf in the story represents the vulnerablility of the weak, including that of the narrator herself, and reminds us of the universality of the human condition which causes all … [Read More]

Chinatown (Bi-lingual, Vol 11 – Women)

by tr Bruce Fulton, Ju-chan Fulton pub Asia Publishers (2012)

Korea was an arduous and painstaking place to live in after the nation’s civil war. Incheon, one of the war’s most famous backdrops, provides the setting for Chinatown, the story of life in one of the ubiquitous shantytown areas that dotted the Korean landscape at the time, and is a painfully real account of what … [Read More]

The Road to Sampo (Bi-lingual, Vol 7 – Industrialization)

by tr Kim Uchang pub Asia Publishers (2012)

Thanks to Tony Malone for confirming the name of the translator in his review! As is often the case with an Asia Publishers publication, not much information is available online, and the book is pretty difficult to buy. You can also find the story translated in Modern Korean Short Stories and The Road to Sampo … [Read More]

Record of a journey to Mujin (Bi-lingual, Vol 6 – Industrialization)

by pub Asia Publishers (2012)

Mujin represents the limits reconfirmed. It represents not only the line between the positive and the negative, and between the modern and anti-modern or the un-modern, but also the line between the normal and the abnormal, and between life and death. And the “Record of a Journey to Mujin” is a record of the experience … [Read More]

The Land of the Banished (Bi-lingual, Vol 5 – Division)

by tr Chun Kyung-ja pub Asia Publishers (2012)

The Land of the Banished is a heart-rending tale of a man torn and warped by the hardships of the Korean War period. Born into a landless peasant family, Mahn-seok becomes embroiled in the class struggle that descends upon his village with the onset of the war. From his rise through the ranks of the … [Read More]