I still remember that house filled with summer… Growing up, Jung-soon spent every moment she could at her grandparents’ house. Dressing up and watching cartoons. Dyeing each other’s fingernails with crushed balsam petals. Getting the whole neighborhood together to sweep their streets. Falling asleep together…just the three of them, happy. Grandfather was Grandmother’s best and … [Read More]
Booklist: Literature Fiction and Poetry (page 7)
Like a Fruit Tearing Its Way Out of a Flower
Like A Fruit Tearing Its Way Out of a Flower by Jang Okgwan is a collection of poems selected by the poet from his almost 40-year, award winning career. With the lightness and wit of a comedian, Jang’s meditations on aging brilliantly capture the conflict between the unflinching power of the human mind against the unavoidable … [Read More]
Luminous
In a recently reunified Korea, robots have integrated seamlessly into society. They are our teachers, our bus drivers and policemen. They are our lovers. They are even our children. Eleven-year-old Ruijie sifts through scrap metal in a Seoul junkyard, searching for anything that might repair her failing body. There amongst the piles of junk she … [Read More]
A Thousand Blues
It’s only when we slow down that we can truly experience joy … 2035: In the shadow of a race course, a young woman finds a robot named Coli on a scrap heap, contemplating the sky. Intrigued, she takes Coli into her care and learns how the robot is designed to be a humanoid jockey … [Read More]
Green Frog
Here are fifteen pitch-perfect stories about women trying to make their own way: featuring daughters, divorcees, fox demons, a praying mantis, and . . . green frogs. A young girl reconnects with her Korean grandmother; an artist considers her connection to the Korean folktale of the green frog; a praying mantis living in a beautiful … [Read More]
Counterattacks at Thirty
From the bestselling author of ALMOND, The Devil Wears Prada meets The Office in this witty, humane, and ultimately transformative story of a group of young workers who rebel against the status quo. Jihye is an ordinary woman who has never been extraordinary. In her administrative job at the Academy, she silently tolerates office politics … [Read More]
Hidden Heroes: Anthology of North Korean Fiction
Hidden Heroes is a collection of short stories from the 1980s to present that unveil the lives of ordinary North Koreans. Through themes of identity, community, and power, it reveals a complex society, offering readers a nuanced understanding beyond prevailing stereotypes Hidden Heroes offers a rare and intimate glimpse into the lives of ordinary North … [Read More]
Snowy Day and Other Stories
The first story collection published in English by Lee Chang-dong, one of South Korea’s most celebrated and influential literary and cinematic figures. Much like Lee Chang-dong’s internationally renowned films (Burning, Secret Sunshine, and Poetry), these brilliant, unsettling tales, originally published in Korea in the 1980s and now translated into English for the first time, investigate … [Read More]
We Do Not Part
In her biggest book since The Vegetarian, the new novel from Han Kang tells the story of a friendship, taking us on a journey from South Korea into its painful history. One morning in December, Kyungha receives a message from her friend Inseon saying she has been hospitalized in Seoul and asking that Kyungha join her urgently. … [Read More]
Oops, I Kidnapped a Pharaoh!
Kpop Demon Hunters fans will love this hilarious time-travel adventure starring famous historical figures as you’ve never seen them before. Join schoolgirl Skylar as she dances with Ancient Egypt’s King Tutankhamun, fangirls with Marie Curie & gives William Shakespeare a K-Beauty glow up. When Skylar and best friend Dana accept a ride in Nana’s new tuktuk, they … [Read More]
Comics Art in Korea
In Comics Art in Korea, comics scholar John A. Lent embarks on a comprehensive exploration of the vibrant world of Korean comics, cartoons, comic strips, graphic novels, webcomics, and animation. This meticulously researched work delves deep into the intricate history, cultural significance, and artistic innovations that have shaped the comics landscape in both North and South … [Read More]
To the Kennels, and other stories
An acclaimed story collection from the author of the Shirley Jackson Award–winning novel The Hole Six elephants bolt from an amusement park and vanish; where they’re found brings back memories of a forgotten dictator. A car ride on a foggy highway at night becomes a drive through hell for a young couple getting away for the … [Read More]
City of Night Birds
‘A novel that will be read and loved for the next one hundred years, and essential reading for right now. I could not have loved it more.’ Coco Mellors, author of Blue Sisters ‘This story left me thinking about the ways we overcome setbacks and redefine what truly matters.’ Reese Witherspoon A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK … [Read More]
I Am Not Korean
Song Kyeong-dong is a social activist and a poet. He is surely the only Korean poet capable of writing a poem denying that he is Korean, being filled with shame on reading of the way Korean companies, having relocated their factories to Southeast Asia to profit from cheap labor, systematically exploit and abuse their underpaid workers, … [Read More]
Your Neighbour’s Table
From the award-winning author of The Old Woman with the Knife comes the thought-provoking story of community and the cultural expectations of motherhood, through four women whose lives intersect in unexpected ways at a government-run apartment complex outside Seoul When Yojin moves with her husband and daughter into the Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments, she’s … [Read More]
The Rainfall Market
A rumour surrounds an old house. Send a letter and if it’s chosen a mysterious ticket will be delivered to you. No one is more surprised than Serin when she receives a ticket inviting her to a market that opens once a year when it rains. Here she’s offered to swap her life for another. … [Read More]