When it comes to fiction, 2023 was a year that defied my expectations. Those novels that I hoped or expected to enjoy turned out to be disappointments; those that I thought might be heavy going turned out to be enjoyable. It was a reminder to try better to abide by the maxim of approaching a … [Read More]
Category: Translated Korean literature
Korean Culture Month: Cheon Myeong-kwan talks to Martin Colthorpe
In celebration of Korean Culture Month at Foyles Charing Cross Road, we are delighted to welcome Cheon Myeong-kwan via video-link from Korea for an interview with Martin Colthorpe about his International Booker Prize-shortlisted novel Whale. Originally published in Korean in 2004, Whale secured Cheon the prestigious Korea New Writer Award and, with a place on … [Read More]
Book review: JM Lee – Painter of the Wind
In The Investigation (2012, English version 2014), JM Lee gave readers an historical novel combined with a course in poetry appreciation. Somehow, it didn’t work for us. In Painter of the Wind, Lee gives his readers an historical novel combined with a course in art appreciation and it works a lot better. The novel was … [Read More]
Strangers Press releases a new series of eight short story translations
Strangers Press, which brought us Yeoyu. a series of eight translated short story chapbooks in 2019, this week released a follow-up. The new series is entitled Iyagi and features works by both established and emerging authors – including what seems to be a posthumously published work by Park Wansuh. According to the publisher, “Each of these … [Read More]
Sang Young Park, Anton Hur and Simon Lam on Love in the Big City
KCCUK is pleased to announce an in-person talk about the novel Love in the Big City with the author San Young Park and the translator Anton Hur. A fresh and unique debut novel by the bestselling young star of Korean queer fiction, Love in the Big City is an energetic, joyful, and moving novel that … [Read More]
Book review: Cheon Myeong-kwan — Whale
The Man Booker International Prize started in its current annual form in 2016 and was famously won that year by Han Kang and Deborah Smith with The Vegetarian. Since then, hopes of a Korean repeat success have been kept alive with titles in the longlist (At Dusk (2019), Love in the Big City (2022)) and … [Read More]
Love in the Big City – Sang Young Park and Anton Hur in conversation
Libreria is thrilled to welcome a star of Korean fiction, Sang Young Park, and brilliant translator, Anton Hur, as they discuss Love in the Big City – a fresh and unique debut novel, longlisted for the 2022 Internatioal Booker Prize. Love in the Big City is about queers and Catholicism, women, abortion, STDs, and the … [Read More]
May Literature Night special: book talk with Cheon Myeong-kwan
Cheon Myeong-kwan, author of Whale, is a Korean novelist, screenwriter and director whose work has been translated into eight languages. Set in a remote Korean village, Whale follows three mythical characters with interlinked lives: Geumbok, who has been chasing an indescribable thrill ever since she first saw a whale crest in the ocean; her mute daughter, Chunhui, who … [Read More]
Overcoming Barriers: Korea in Translation
Brother Anthony (who has been publishing translations of Korean poetry and fiction since 1990) will begin by talking about some of the books by which Korea and its region first became known in centuries past, books that were translated from and into a variety of languages. He will then review the ways in which Korean … [Read More]
Yun Ko-eun on the humour to be found in nightmarish scenarios
The moderator was late, misdirected by a faulty map app. The interpreter’s pen ran out of ink, as did a replacement pen supplied by a member of the audience. A warning message popped up on screen warning those present that the KCC’s laptop battery was getting low. The PA system didn’t seem to be working. … [Read More]
Han Kang: Greek Lessons launch event
Han Kang, author of The Vegetarian, launches a powerful new novel about the saving grace of language and human connection, in conversation with Octavia Bright. Greek Lessons tells the story of two ordinary people brought together at a moment of private anguish – the fading light of a man losing his vision meeting the silence of a … [Read More]
Korean Literature Night: Yun Ko-Eun in conversation with Sharlene Teo
Yona has been stuck behind a desk for years working as a programming coordinator for Jungle, a travel company specialising in package holidays to destinations ravaged by disaster. When a senior colleague touches her inappropriately she tries to complain, and in an attempt to bury her allegations, the company make her an attractive proposition: a … [Read More]
February Literature Night: The Age of Doubt by Pak Kyongni
The Age of Doubt collects some of Pak Kyongni’s most famous works, including her 1955 debut and other stories featuring characters that would appear in her 21-volume epic, T’oji. Many of Pak’s stories reflect her own turbulent experiences during the period following the Korean war and the various Korean dictatorships throughout the twentieth century. Pak … [Read More]
Review: Cho Nam-joo – Saha
After the domestic success of Kim Ji-young (2016; English translation by Jamie Chang published in 2020), and of its encouraging sales overseas, it was natural that Cho Nam-joo’s next novel would attract interest. Accordingly, Saha had a slightly shorter journey from Korean into English: after an original publication date in 2019 its English translation came … [Read More]
Book review: Seo Su-jin – Korean Teachers
After what was a fairly downbeat reading experience for us last year, quite by chance we came across the first publication of translated Korean literature from Singapore’s Harriet Press, released without our noticing it in March 2022. Seo Sujin’s debut novel Korean Teachers won the Hankyoreh Literature Award in 2020, and it is encouraging that … [Read More]
Lee Hyemi shortlisted for Sarah Maguire Prize for Poetry in Translation
Congratulations to poet Lee Hyemi, translator Soje and the pioneering Tilted Axis Press for being shortlisted for the 2022 Sarah Maguire Prize for Poetry in Translation with the collection Unexpected Vanilla, published in 2020. Awarded every two years, the prize honours the best book of poetry by a living poet from Africa, Asia, Latin America … [Read More]