Join prize-winning author Cheon Seon-Ran for an afternoon of conversation at Foyles about her heartfelt and beautifully told novel, A Thousand Blues. From its perch on top of a pile of junk inside a shed, Coli, a robot with powerful observational qualities, waits patiently for someone to find it. Coli is special among humanoids. This is … [Read More]
Kim Chi-young's website
A look back at the books we encountered in 2023
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]
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]
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]
A look back at our 2022 reading diary
It was a busy year outside of my Korean interests, with the result that I didn’t read as much as I would like. And of the titles that I did read, I haven’t had a chance yet formally to write up my thoughts – though there are several half-written reviews which may eventually see the … [Read More]
Children’s books – the latest translation trend?
In this month’s edition of World Literature Today, Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp draws attention to a number of recent publications of translated children’s books coming from Korea. She speculates: The interest in the Korean children’s market may have been spurred by innovative illustrator, animator, and artist Baek Heena being named the 2020 laureate of the Astrid … [Read More]
A look back at our 2021 reading diary
Looking back at this year, it’s been one of the best for new translations of Korean literature that I can remember. There have been at least ten new fiction titles, and unusually for me I managed to get through all the titles I was intending to. All of them are recommendable in their different ways. … [Read More]
Literature and poetry in translation titles for 2021: more than a dozen to look forward to!
This is now LKL’s fifth annual post that looks at the literature and fiction titles we’re looking forward to over the coming twelve months. Since last year we’ve made things easier for ourselves by investing some time building a book database that aims to catalogue all physical publications of Korean literature in translation, as well … [Read More]
A look back at our 2020 reading diary
Like many readers, we started the year with good intention of blitzing through the pile of new titles that were promised for the coming months, as well as making inroads into the backlog. And we genuinely got off to a good start with a string of fun K-thrillers, some of them new, some not: The … [Read More]
Book review: Jeong You-jeong – Seven Years of Darkness
Jeong You-jeong: Seven Years of Darkness Translated by Kim Chi-young Penguin / Little, Brown 2020 Originally published as 7년의 밤, EunHaeng NaMu Publishing Co, Seoul 2011 It felt like a long wait. We’d seen the movie adaptation a few years ago (Choo Chang-min’s Seven Years of Night, which screened at the London Korean Film Festival … [Read More]
Where to start in Korean translated literature
Note: This article was written in early 2020 at the start of the pandemic. Since then, particularly in 2021, some fantastic translated fiction titles have appeared. We give a round-up of them here. Nevertheless, as of end December 2022 the top ten recommendations below still stand. I do, however, need to edit the choices for … [Read More]
Book review: Marilyn and Me
“Where did all the beautiful and hopeful young women go?” That was the thought that occurred to author Ji-Min Lee, looking back at the grim post-war years, and looking at a couple of photographs from the period: one of Marilyn Monroe performing for the US troops in Korea, and one of a female interpreter sandwiched … [Read More]
Review: JM Lee – The Boy who Escaped Paradise
The Boy Who Escaped Paradise J.M. Lee, translated by Chi Young Kim Pegasus, 2016, 288pp Originally published as 천국의 소년, Seoul, 2013. A fifty-year-old North Korean is found shot to death in a flat in Queens, New York; beside him is a wounded man, the presumed killer. On the floor around the bodies are mysterious … [Read More]
Upcoming literature and fiction titles in 2020 [updated]
![Thumbnail for post: Upcoming literature and fiction titles in 2020 [updated]](https://i0.wp.com/londonkoreanlinks.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/upcoming-fiction.jpg?resize=120%2C120&ssl=1)
I’m hoping that, as in previous years, by posting my own list of upcoming literature and fiction titles – pulled together by some targeted searching on Amazon and a trawl through Barbara J Zitwer’s website – I might persuade others to supplement it from their own specialist knowledge. Whatever happens, books inevitably fall through the … [Read More]
Upcoming literature and fiction titles for 2019
Here’s my first attempt at compiling a list of fiction and poetry titles coming up in 2019. Let me know what I’ve missed. Unlike my separate list of non-fiction I have not exercised any editorial control here: this is everything I have been able to find. The list is in four parts: Modern and contemporary … [Read More]
Jeong You-jeong in conversation at Foyles
As part of Foyles’s Korean Culture Month, leading South-Korean author Jeong You-Jeong (Seven Years of Darkness) joins them for a discussion about her work and to read from her latest novel The Good Son. Yu-jin wakes up covered in blood. There’s no sign of a break in and there’s a body downstairs. It’s the body of someone … [Read More]