queen sondok

Transcription

queen sondok

An introduction to Korean Fiction
Contents
CEGH
Changbi Publishers, Inc. | 6
Edition PPUL | 15
EunHaeng NaMu Publishing Co. | 16
Gimm-Young Publishers, Inc. | 18
Golden Bough | 19
Hainaim Publishing Co., Ltd. | 20
Hankyoreh Publishing Company | 27
Human & Books | 29
Hyundaemunhak Publishing Co. | 30
Hyunmun Media | 34
JKL
Jaeum & Moeum Publishing Co. | 36
Jakkajungsin Publishing Co. | 45
Joongang Books | 46
Kang Publishing | 47
Literature of Literature | 48
An introduction t
M
Maroniebooks | 54
Milionhouse Publishing | 55
Minumsa Publishing Group | 56
Moonhak Soochup Publishing Co., Ltd. | 67
Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. | 69
Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. | 79
Munidang | 97
PRSTWY
Person & Idea Publishing Co. | 102
Prunsoop Publishing Co., Ltd. | 103
Random House Korea | 104
Saeum | 107
Sallim Publishing Co. | 109
Samtoh Co., Ltd. | 110
Sanzini Books | 112
Silcheonmunhak | 113
Spinning-wheel Publishing Co. | 118
Thatbook Co., Ltd. | 119
Thinking Tree Publishing Co., Ltd. | 120
Wisdomhouse Publishing Co., Ltd. | 122
Woongjin ThinkBig Co., Ltd. | 126
Yolimwon Publishing Group | 131
to Korean Fiction
C
Changbi
E
Edition PPUL
G
H
EunHaeng NaMu
Gimm-Young
Golden Bough
Hainaim
Human & Books
Hankyoreh
Hyunmun Media
Hyundaemunhak
Changbi
Human Decency
The 1980s was an age of “fire” and a time when all spheres of society actively demonstrated
against the military regime. When the military regime came to an end in the 1990s, the
struggle against authority gradually began to take on a different light and literature also
followed such flow of change. In the mid-1990s, a new type of literature called “epilogue
literature” emerged in Korea. Instead of openly asserting the propaganda for continuous
struggle, epilogue literature focused on soothing the wounds of those who had lived through
the times of oppression and discrimination. Standing tall at the starting point of such epilogue
literature is Gong’s Human Decency.
This book is the revised version of Gong’s first collection of short stories, Human Decency,
which was published in 1994. In this book, Gong represents the lives of Korean people who
have endured the age of oppression and discrimination and the brutal struggle of the so-called
“386 generation.” This volume includes 9 works including “Daybreak” (Dong-teuneun
Saebyeok), her debut work which was based on her experience of working undercover as a
factory laborer in the 1980s, and “Human Decency,” in which the author places great
importance on maintaining “respect toward the era, history and people.” Her novels since then
also examine ordinary people’s lives and the reality of marginalized people with an
affectionate gaze.
By Lee Seungwon
Copyright Agent : Lee Soonhwa
[email protected] +82 31 955 3369
www.changbi.com
Human Decency
(Ingane Daehan Yeui)
Gong Ji-young
Changbi Publishers, Inc.
2006, 376 pages
ISBN 978-89-364-3695-7
6
LTI Korea
Changbi
The Flowering Whale
Violence goes beyond wielding a gun or knife. While the epilogue literature of the 1990s dealt
with the violence of the military regime and the anguish experienced by student activists who
suffered under this state-sponsored violence, Kim Hyung-kyung has taken a different
approach. He turned to the personal lives and problems of young people during the dark period
of the 1980s. Kim’s debut novel, Birds Cry Calling Their Own Name (Saedereun Je Ireumeul
Bureumyeo Unda), aims to be “healing literature” rather than epilogue literature. Since its
publication, Kim has been exploring the violence hidden within families and everyday life. His
essays on psychotherapy, including People Landscape (Saram Punggyeong) and A Thousand
Sympathies (Cheongaeui Gonggam), help to sooth people’s emotional wounds with a warm,
gentle touch.
The Flowering Whale continues in the tradition of “healing literature.” The novel tells the
beautiful coming-of-age story of Nieun, who loses her parents at seventeen. Nieun decides to
“be an adult rather than an orphan” and finds that there are always people in her life to give her
advice and help heal her wounds. Nieun, who faces the extreme pain of loss with confidence,
teaches readers to “laugh off sorrow.” As Jeong Yeo-ul notes, this book is “a mural of tears
that can only be learned, cried for, and finally smiled at through harsh and weeping wounds we
suffer at the ground zero of life’.”
By Lee Seungwon
[email protected] +82 (0)31 955 3369
www.changbi.com
The Flowering Whale
(Kkotpineun Gorae)
Kim Hyung-kyung
2008, 270 pages
ISBN 978-89-364-3365-9 03810
7
Changbi
There Goes Bukowski
There Goes Bukowski won the prize for new fiction writers. The title refers to the American
writer Henry Charles Bukowski and the author Han revealed that he thought of a “novel that is
a jumble of gaps and excess” while reading Bukowski’s novel. As the author said, There Goes
Bukowski is a far departure from the structure of introduction, development, turn and
conclusion required of traditional novels. The main character is an unemployed 32-year-old
man who has been trying to find a job for the past two years. Though he tries to prepare
himself to enter society, he continuously fails and his life remains shabby. Then one day,
“something new” happens to him. He decides to follow Bukowski who closes his shop and
disappears at 9 a.m. on every rainy day. He absent-mindedly follows Bukowski to various
places in Seoul such as Jongno, Gwanghwamun, Ewha Womans University, Sinchon, Yeouido
and Gangnam Station; he runs into trouble at a subway station, and feels lethargic and
threatened, as he watches people in suits on their commute. However, there is no clear purpose
to what he does and nothing really happens until the end of the book. For the most part, he
remains “a puppy that peeps into the society.”
By Choi Jaebong
www.changbi.com
There Goes Bukowski
(Bukoseukiga Ganda)
Han Jae-ho
2009, 229 pages
ISBN 978-89-364-3368-0 03810
8
LTI Korea
Changbi
The Crucible
The Crucible exposes the habitual sexual abuse of students by faculty members at a school for
the deaf and the efforts made by those in power to conceal such acts of violence. The author
has infused a true story with her own imagination and investigation. With her unique sensitive
style, the author covers the universal themes of good and evil, truth and deceit, and courage
and cowardice. The story begins when the main character Gang Inho arrives as a part-time
teacher at a school for the deaf in Mujin, a city by the sea. He soon learns about the habitual
sexual abuse of young students by the headmaster and other faculty members and tries to
expose them with the help of others associated with the school. However, when those with
power come together to protect the offenders and when the offenders attack Gang’s daily
comforts and personal reputation, Gang finally gives up the fight. His cowardice which
forsakes the clear choice between good and evil, between truth and deceit, may resonate with
many readers. Rather than criticizing and accusing Gang, the author embraces him and talks
about preparing for a long fundamental battle instead of obsessing over smaller fights in the
short run.
By Choi Jaebong
www.changbi.com
The Crucible
(Dogani)
Gong Ji-young
2009, 292 pages
ISBN 978-89-364-3370-3
9
Changbi
Lou-lan
Lou-lan by Hyeon Giyeong is based in Seoul rather than his hometown Jeju-do, which has
been the setting of most of his novels from the successful Sooni s Uncle (Suni Samchon)
(1978) to the bestselling novel A Spoon on the Ground (Jisange Sutgarak Hana) (1999). Seoul
in 2002 when thick yellow dust covered the city that was excited by the World Cup games
serves as the main background of this novel. The main character is Heo Museong who was at
the forefront of the 1980s student movement. The story begins with Heo getting beaten by
investigators in the basement of a building situated at the foot of Mt. Namsan after the 1987
June Uprising. In an extreme situation where one is forced by violence to cease being human
and instead become a helpless animal, Heo Museong is reduced to a “mongrel that shits with
fear” and gives up his friends. His confession ruins the student movement circle and Heo,
sponsored by the prosecutor Kim Ilgang who tortured him, leaves to study in Japan and
becomes a professor upon his return. After becoming elected a member of the National
Assembly, Kim Ilgang, who respects Park Chung-hee and dreams of the revival of the “Park
Chung-hee ideology” and spreading of Park Chung-hee studies, tries to manipulate Heo
Museong. Torn between his fear of Kim Ilgang and what remains of his consciousness, Heo
finally gives up everything and opts for the freedom of a homeless man.
By Choi Jaebong
www.changbi.com
Lou-lan
(Nuran)
Hyeon Giyeong
2009, 300 pages
ISBN 978-89-364-3371-0
10
LTI Korea
Changbi
Goodbye, Elena
Kim Insook’s collection of short stories Goodbye, Elena is interspersed with the tears, sighs
and moaning of those who have lost or abandoned their family members. In the title story, the
main character, the daughter of a former fisherman who worked on a deep-sea fishing vessel,
asks for a favor from her friend who is about to travel abroad: to find her half sister named
Elena who was abandoned by her father. After years of living the self-indulgent life of an
irresponsible bachelor at sea, the father changed into a timid man who fears the world
following his divorce. Once he passes away, the main character belatedly regrets not
understanding her father and asks for forgiveness. In “Jo Dong-ok, Fabianne,” the main
character is informed that her mother, who had left her child with her ex-husband and departed
for Brazil immediately after the divorce, has died a year before turning sixty. When the main
character was only sixteen, she gave birth to a baby secretly “taken care of” by her mother.
Suddenly seized by guilt following her mother’s death, she longs for her lost baby. Finally, the
main character of “Breath-Nightmare” has a nightmare in which he murders his father. As the
story progresses, however, it is revealed that he was killed as a baby and is now in fact a ghost.
By Choi Jaebong
www.changbi.com
Goodbye, Elena
(Annyeong, Ellena)
Kim Insook
2009, 226 pages
ISBN 978-89-364-3710-7
11
Changbi
The Ashes and the Red
Grotesque and cruel depictions have become author Pyun Hye-young’s trademark thanks to
her two collections of short stories. Her first novel The Ashes and the Red has retained these
characteristics and combined them with Kafkaesque aporia and philosophical thinking on the
world of impossible communication. The main character who works for a foreign
pharmaceutical company is recognized for his skills in catching rats and is dispatched abroad
to a country called C amid his colleagues’ jealousy. His life, however, turns into a living
nightmare the minute he enters C. He is detained by the quarantine authorities because he is
suspected of suffering from a contagious disease and though he receives a red stamp and is
taken to his hotel, his contact “Mol” is nowhere to be found. He calls home only to find out
that his ex-wife has been found murdered in his home and that he is the prime suspect of the
crime. At that moment he hears someone knocking at the door. Surprised, he jumps out of the
window and from there on, his life continues to spiral down. He fights the rats over food
garbage in the sewer and also takes part in a murder. By chance, he manages to call his office
back home pretending to be Mol but is shocked to find that no one seems to know his name or
identity: his entire existence has disappeared completely from the world. The novel leads us
into a dark abyss filled with the loss of humanity and absolute solitude.
By Choi Jaebong
www.changbi.com
The Ashes and the Red
(Jaewa Ppalgang)
Pyun Hye-young
2010, 260 pages
ISBN 978-89-364-3373-4
12
LTI Korea
Changbi
The King of Confession
The King of Confession is the first collection of short stories by Lee Jang-wook, a wellrounded writer who publishes several forms of writing including poems, novels and reviews.
In his early work “The Space of Armadillo,” space and time, as well as cause and effect, are
shuffled and rearranged in an unexpected manner, which is a reflection of the story’s poetic
nature. On the other hand, “Tokyo Boy” tells the story of a man the main character encounters
at a rundown inn in the backstreets of rainy Tokyo. The man whispers as if he was talking to
himself: “But do you think my dear Yuki is really dead?” Yuki means “snow” in Japanese.
And just like snow, her existence fades with time and eventually melts, becoming invisible in
the end. However, the last scene in which someone imperceptible to the eye walks beside him
holding an umbrella clearly indicates Yuki’s existence. In “Byeon Hee-bong,” an aspiring
stage actor keeps running into the film actor Byeon Hee-bong who is invisible to others. In the
title work the main character stuns his friends with stories of his unhappy family and
increasingly terrible and unbelievable confessions. The author’s persistent exploration of the
boundary between existence and non-existence continues in “To Your Forgotten Nights”
where people wander through the night world possessed by death.
By Choi Jaebong
www.changbi.com
The King of Confession
(Gobaegui Jewang)
Lee Jang-wook
2010, 283 pages
ISBN 978-89-3643-712-1
13
Changbi
Dreams of Gangnam
Hwang Sok-yong’s novel Dreams of Gangnam begins with the true story of the collapse of a
large department store in June 1995. Starting from this incident, which was accepted to
symbolize the collapse of Korean-style compressed modernization, the novel goes back in time
and evokes the history of corruption and greed in Korea that is symbolized as Gangnam. The
author divides the novel into five chapters to represent the different decades and diverse social
strata. The main character of the first chapter is Bak Seonnyeo, the second wife of Kim Jin, the
CEO of the collapsed department store. Seonnyeo, whose parents own a small restaurant on
the outskirts of Seoul, becomes a model, joins the demimonde, builds connections with gang
members while running a bar, and accumulates wealth through speculations in real estate. Her
life history which spans over fifty years unfolds speedily throughout the chapter. Chapter 2 is
devoted to Kim Jin’s life. After working as a spy for the Japanese military police in Manchuria
under Japanese colonial rule, he works as an agent of the secret military agency under the US
Military Government after liberation. Following the May 16 Military Coup, Kim Jin starts a
construction business under the protection of the regime and amasses considerable wealth. His
life represents the shame of the upper echelon of the Korean society that is closely linked to
pro-Americanism and pro-dictatorship. The novel incorporates the stories of the real estate
agent Sim Namsu (Chapter 3), gang members Hong Yangtae and Gang Eunchon (Chapter 4)
and department store employee Im Jeonga (Chapter 5) to paint a huge mural of Korean modern
society.
By Choi Jaebong
www.changbi.com
Dreams of Gangnam
(Gangnammong)
Hwang Sok-yong
2010, 380 pages
ISBN 978-89-3643-376-5
14
LTI Korea
Edition PPUL
The Goldberg Variations
“I have long had great interest in performing the Goldberg Variations with words.
I think
people liked my playing perhaps because I have been trying for some time to transfer the
musical style of the Goldberg Variations into language,” says the pianist Gilen Goldmundt, the
main character of Seo Junhwan’s novel The Goldberg Variations. Goldmundt seems to have
been modeled after Glenn Gould, the most famous modern interpreter of Bach’s masterpiece,
and it would not be misguided to presume his words reflect the author’s thinking. In the novel,
the Goldberg Foundation invites Goldmundt to take on the project to translate the Goldberg
Variations into words. To embark on this project, Goldmundt selects a team of artists from
various fields including a pianist, a science fiction writer, a guitarist, a composer and an opera
singer, and he takes the damper pedal off the piano to go back to the age of harpsichords
before the piano became the primary keyboard instrument. By having fifteen artists whose
names are a play on Glenn Gould perform the piece not with musical sounds but with words,
the author has created a unique novel.
By Choi Jaebong
Copyright Agent : Kim Jiyeong
www.wjthinkbig.com
The Goldberg Variations
(Goldeubereukeu Byeonjugok)
Seo Junhwan
Edition PPUL
2010, 332 pages
ISBN 978-89-0111-268-8
15
EunHaeng NaMu
A Story Sadder than Sadness
In 1992, a poet appeared like a shooting star in the poetry circle. His name was Won Tae-yun
and he sang of love between young lovers under her online nickname “wonsiin” (primitive
man). His book You Think of Me Sometimes, But I Rarely Think of Anyone Else (Neon
Gakkeumgada Nae Saenggageul Hajiman Nan Gakkeumgada Ttan Saenggageul Hae) touched
a great number of teenage girls’ hearts and Won became a bestselling poet overnight. He has a
natural talent for appealing to people’s sensibility and as if to prove his ability, every book he
has published became a bestseller.
A Story Sadder than Sadness (Seulpeum Boda Deo Seulpeun Iyagi) marks the poet’s debut as
a novelist. It is a love story seen from four different perspectives: Kay, a producer of a radio
program, was abandoned by her parents; lyricist Cream lost his entire family at once in a car
accident; Juhwan is a capable professor of dentistry; and Jenna is Juhwan’s fiancee who stays
with Kay in his last days. The sad love stories of these four people shine with the poet’s unique
sensibility. The heartbreaking love of the two couples who have to hide their love from each
other, despite living together, and pretend not to notice each other’s pain will bring tears to the
readers’ eyes. A movie of the same title was made based on this book, produced by the author
himself and starring Kwon Sang Woo, one of the stars of the “Korean wave” (Hallyu).
By Lee Seungwon
Copyright Agent : Jinny H. Lee
www.ehbook.co.kr
A Story Sadder than Sadness
(Seulpeum Boda Deo Seulpeun Iyagi)
Won Tae-yun
EunHaeng NaMu Publishing Co.
2009, 227 pages
ISBN 978-89-9621260-7
16
LTI Korea
EunHaeng NaMu
Shoot Me in the Heart
Jeong You-jeong’s novel Shoot Me in the Heart is a record of struggle for freedom. That the
plot unfolds in a psychiatric hospital and deals with the patients’ attempts to escape reminds us
of the American novel and film One Flew over the Cuckoo s Nest (1975).
The main characters of the novel are Sumyeong and Seungmin, both 25 years old and
roommates at the psychiatric hospital. In the first half of the book, Seungmin recklessly and
tenaciously attempts to escape for reasons hard to understand while Sumyeong observes him
anxiously. According to Sumyeong, Seungmin is “not confined at the hospital because he is
crazy. Rather, he is going crazy because he is confined.” Seungmin often talks in riddles:
“There is no time and it’s driving me mad.” It is not until much later that the reader learns that
he has been suffering from progressive vision loss and that he wants to paraglide-his hobby as
well as talent-before he loses his sight completely.
After many persistent attempts to escape, Seungmin finally succeeds and Sumyeong, who has
played a big role in helping him, learns an important lesson: “I am the master of my own life.”
Thanks to this lesson, Sumyeong also achieves the freedom he has yearned for so long.
By Choi Jaebong
Copyright Agent : Jinny H. Lee
www.ehbook.co.kr
Shoot Me in the Heart
(Nae Simjangeul Sswara)
Jeong You-jeong
EunHaeng NaMu Publishing Co.
2009, 384 pages
ISBN 978-89-5660-299-8
17
Gimm-Young
Project of the First Qin
The story that Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor to unify China, sent his subjects to find the
elixir of immortality is well known in North East Asia. Yu Gwang-su, a scholar of classical
literature, was inspired by the anecdote of Qin Shi Huang and the current relationship between
Korea, China and Japan to write his historical mystery novel Project of the First Qin
(Jinsihwang Peurojekteu). Exciting events, including the story of Qin Shi Huang and the elixir
of immortality, serial murder, extreme confrontation between Korean, Chinese and Japanese
nationalists, and great conspiracies, all unfold in this book.
A man is beheaded in broad daylight in downtown Seoul. The murderer who wielded the
sword puts the man’s head in a bag and disappears. The police consider a history professor at a
local university a strong suspect and begin their investigation. The investigation team learns
that there was a similar murder case in Japan where a killer took the victim’s head and heart.
As the investigation progresses, the “Qin Shi Huang Project,” aimed at resurrecting Emperor
Qin Shi Huang and conquering East Asia, slowly begins to take form.
Project of the First Qin received the “New Wave Literature Prize,” which seeks to find novels
that are both literary and popular. The winning work is not only published but also turned into
a movie, theater or a TV drama series. Project of the First Qin is the first winner of this prize.
By Min Hyunbae
Copyright Agent : Lee Youjeong
gimmyoung.com/english
Project of the First Qin
(Jinsihwang Peurojekteu)
Yu Gwang-su
Gimm-Young Publishers, Inc.
2008, 540 pages
ISBN 89-349-2876-8
18
LTI Korea
Golden Bough
Shadow Mark
Lee Young-do’s Dragon Raja is a legendary work in Korean fantasy literature. It first
appeared as a series on the Internet communication network Hitel in 1997 and was greatly
loved by netizens. It was published as a separate volume in 1998 and has so far sold over a
million copies. Dragon Raja has been translated in East Asian countries including Japan, China
and Taiwan where it recorded sales of over 800,000 copies, in addition to being made into
cartoons and games. As the adaptation into other media demonstrates, Dragon Raja is a very
popular bestselling novel in many East Asian countries.
His new fantasy novel Shadow Mark (Geurimja Jaguk) is an ambitious endeavor that has been
released after three years of silence. While his previous novels were published in book format
after they were serialized on the Internet, his new book went straight to paper for publication.
Shadow Mark is rightfully described as an elaborate combination of fantasy and detective
novels. The story takes place almost a thousand years after the time of Dragon Raja and when
the magic of Dragon Raja, the mediator between humans and dragons, has been forgotten.
Depicting a desperate struggle between humans and dragons over the “shadow eraser,” a
weapon that can erase everything of the past, present and future, Shadow Mark promises to
give wings to the reader’s imagination.
By Lee Seungwon
Copyright Agent : Choe Goun
[email protected] +82 2 515 2000 (Ext. 291)
www.minumsa.com
Shadow Mark
(Geurimja Jaguk)
Lee Young-do
Golden Bough
2008, 424 pages
ISBN 978-89-6017-266-1
19
Hainaim
The Abduction of the Crown Princess
Kim Jin-myeng is a popular writer of many bestselling books in Korea. His novel The Rose of
Sharon Blossomed (Mugunghwa Kkochi Pieosseumnida) is said to have sold 4,500,000 copies,
reflecting people’s undying enthusiasm for the novel. Until now, Kim has been loved for
reviving a number of very delicate historical and political cases and fictionalizing them.
The Abduction of the Crown Princess(Hwangtaejabi Napchi Sageon) is a case in point. This
book explores the assassination of Empress Myeongseong, also known as the fox hunt. The
assassination of Empress Myeongseong is a delicate and sensitive historical issue in KoreaJapan relations. Japanese samurais invaded the royal palace of Joseon and carried out the
barbaric act of assassinating the empress, a horrific deed unprecedented in the world. In this
regard, fictionalizing the assassination of Empress Myeongseong is all the more delicate when
seen from the standpoint of Korea-Japan relations. The focus of Kim’s investigation in this
book is not on the assassination itself but rather on why the empress’s body had to be burned
after she was assassinated. What is Japan hiding about the assassination and what is the
historical truth that Kim is trying to uncover to us? It would be interesting for readers to
understand this book in light of the dynamic relationship between nationalism and history.
By Lee Seungwon
Copyright Agent : Park Su-jin
www.hainaim.com
The Abduction of the Crown Princess
(Hwangtaejabi Napchi Sageon)
Kim Jin-myeng
Hainaim Publishing Co., Ltd.
2008, 241 pages
ISBN 978-89-7337-977-4
20
LTI Korea
Hainaim
A Wild Dog
Lee Oisoo has recently become very popular among young readers in Korea. His blog through
which Lee expresses his unreserved opinions on politics and current affairs is always active
with a great number of visitors. His popularity has extended over into television and radio,
where he is a frequent guest. Admiring how he laughs and jokes comfortably with young
people while raising penetrating insights and commentary on current issues, many find his
multifaceted character refreshing. His novel A Wild Dog was first published in early 1980 but
has been reprinted thanks to the author’s recent popularity. The main characters are a man and
a woman who live in seclusion in a dilapidated school building. The woman refuses to accept
the compromises of the world and the man, a would-be artist, has turned away from the world
to focus only on his work. The common element between them is that they cannot adapt to the
existing social order which is represented by language. The 145.4cm by 97cm painting of 99
hungry wolves in their rundown house symbolizes the “wild nature” aspired by them. Lee’s
early novels tend to exhibit strong romanticism and his romantic tendencies are also evident in
this novel, in which the plot moves completely toward art from the point of confrontation
between art and reality.
By Choi Jaebong
www.hainaim.com
A Wild Dog
(Deulgae)
Lee Oisoo
2008, 286 pages
ISBN 978-89-7337-981-1
21
Hainaim
Dreaming Plant
Among Korean readers, novelist Lee Oisoo is known as an eccentric, a genius and a lunatic. He is
especially popular among young readers. They recognize qualities in him that they have not in their
parents and teachers such as youth, passion, openness, insight, beauty, romance, sensitivity, wit and
sympathy, which arouse their enthusiasm. In Dreaming Plant (Kkumkkuneun Singmul), Lee’s first
novel, the desire for a primitive life is revealed through the story of a young man who cannot adapt to
the irrational and violent reality and finally chooses death. It is an aesthetic novel that explores the
fantasy-consciousness with the author’s delicate sensibility and unique style of irony.
There is a family that hates each other. The father, who is violent and ugly, is a pimp. The mother
who was forced to marry the father hates him. The mother also hates the first son who resembles the
father but loves and cares for the second son who resembles her. The third and youngest son is the
narrator of the novel. The eldest son drugs the second son and forces him to have group sex with
their father’s prostitutes while taking pictures of the scene. When the latter comes to his senses and
realizes what has happened, he goes mad and eventually gets killed by a dog. The story of the second
son and the narrator, who have to exist like plants in a violent, absurd world created by the father and
the first son, unfolds in an elaborate and sensuous style.
Though Dreaming Plant deals with a bizarre topic, it has become a bestseller thanks to the powerful
writing and themes. Lee’s other works include Sword (Kal), Painting of the Golden Crane in the
Chinese Parasol Tree (Byeogo Geumhakdo), Wild Dog (Deulgae) and Callipogon Relictus
(Jangsohaneulso). All his works are characterized as “very emotional.”
By Min Hyunbae
Copyright Agent : Park Su-Jin
www.hainaim.com
Dreaming Plant
(Kkumkkuneun Singmul)
Lee Oisoo
2005, 228 pages
ISBN 978-89-733-7645-2
22
LTI Korea
Hainaim
Queen Seondeok
A number of books on Queen Seondeok of Silla have been published since the airing of a TV
drama that features the historical queen as the main character. History books as wells as
various novels are vying for our attention and Queen Seondeok (volumes 1 and 2) by broadcast
writer Han Sojin has recently joined the competition.
Not much is known about Queen Seondeok who lived in the 7th century. Though the two main
ancient history books Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms) and Samguk sagi
(History of the Three Kingdoms) mention her often, they hardly offer sufficient information.
The author boldly accepts the contents of Hwarang segi (Annals of the Hwarang), whose
authenticity is often the subject of controversy, and portrays the queen’s life as even fuller and
more dramatic. In addition to the existing historical figures such as Queen Seondeok, Kim
Chun-chu and Kim Yu-sin, the author brings to life folk-tale characters such as Dohwanyeo,
Bihyeongnang and Gildal, thereby blurring the boundary between history and fiction for her
novel.
The book portrays the progressive spirit of Queen Seondeok, the first queen in Korean history.
Unlike Misil who lived off men’s power as a sex provider, Queen Seondeok demonstrated her
political authority by claiming the seat of power by her own ability, constructed the
Cheomseongdae Observatory to safeguard Silla in case of a great flood, possessed
extraordinary talents in foreign languages and Korean traditional geomancy called pungsu, and
appointed Queen Jindeok, the other queen, as her successor.
By Choi Jaebong
www.hainaim.com
Queen Seondeok
(Seondeok Yeowong)
Han Sojin
2009, 247 pages
ISBN 978-89-7337-032-0
23
Hainaim
The Great Power of Tear
The Great Power of Tear is the first novel by Lee Chul-whan who became a bestselling author
with his collection of deeply moving true stories titled The Briquette Path (Yeontangil).
Teenage boy Yujin and his family of four all live in a single room. What makes the situation
worse is that his father, who has lived all his life in poverty, has become a violent alcoholic.
However, even the violent father, who kicks the dinner table over and beats his wife and
children, cannot keep himself from crying, as he faces the pitiful breakfast table on New
Year’s Day. While growing up in such unfortunate circumstances, Yujin meets a blind man
living next door; he shares with Yujin wisdom and consoles him by playing his harmonica.
Meanwhile Yujin’s first love Rara who gave him crayons that he could not afford helps him
hold onto hope despite all the trials and hardships in his life. However, the blind neighbor’s
wife who is also blind dies in a hit-and-run accident and Yujin, now a young adult, earns
money as a factory worker and as a street apple vendor, in order to find his way out of poverty.
The Great Power of Tear shows how one grows through life’s many trials and what one needs
in order to stay positive and decent all the hardships.
By Choi Jaebong
www.hainaim.com
The Great Power of Tear
(Nunmureun Himi Seda)
Lee Chul-whan
Hainaim Publishing, Co., Ltd.
2009, 244 pages
ISBN 978-89-7337-934-7
24
LTI Korea
Hainaim
For Forgiveness
Han Soo San’s novel For Forgiveness juxtaposes the author’s experiences of torture in the
1980s with the spiritual life of Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan who passed away in February last year.
Upon hearing the news of the Cardinal’s passing, the author traces the Cardinal’s life and
ruminates upon his teachings of forgiveness and love. Following his footsteps through his
childhood home in Gunwi, Sophia University in Tokyo where he must have agonized with the
burning heart of a young man living under colonial rule, Gyesan Cathedral in Daegu where his
love for his mother developed and matured, Mokseongdong Cathedral, his first parish in
Andong, and Seongui Girls’ High School and Hwanggeum-dong Church in Gimcheon where
the young priest spent his youth, the author portrays the formation of the Cardinal’s spiritual
life. While tracing the Cardinal’s footsteps, the author looks back on his own life when he was
arrested and taken to the Defense Security Command in May 1981 because of his newspaper
serial novel. After enduring extreme torture, he was chased out of the country and forced to
live abroad for a while. Throughout his pilgrimage, he reflects on the question he wants to
pose the Cardinal: “If you had been taken away and tortured without knowing why, would you
still have been able to talk about forgiveness and love?” In Chapter 6 titled “Bog of
Memories,” the author gives a detailed 50-page account of the week when he was taken from
Jeju-do where he had been writing to the Defense Security Command where he was
imprisoned and tortured brutally.
By Choi Jaebong
www.hainaim.com
For Forgiveness
(Yongseoreul Wihayeo)
Han Soo San
Hainaim Publishing, Co., Ltd.
2010, 349 pages
ISBN 978-89-7337-070-2
25
Hainaim
The Kamikaze Special Attack Force
Kim Byeol-a’s novel The Kamikaze Special Attack Force is about the main character Ha
Yunsik, a young Korean man who was one of Japan’s Kamikaze suicide attack pilots at the
end of the World War II. Yunsik’s father, the son of a butcher’s family, came up to Seoul by
himself at the age of 17. He works hard to curry favor with the Japanese and hence becomes
very successful. He sought to fabricate an aristocratic background for himself by buying a
yangban family’s genealogy as well as marrying an educated, enlightened woman from a
fallen yangban family.
The novel relies heavily on Yunsik’s personality. Unlike his brother who is good looking,
smart and outgoing, Yunsik is “a stocky man with a small head, narrow hook-shaped eyes and
strong shoulders” like his father and his view of life is as meaningless and loose as his looks.
The possibility of being serious or solemn seems to lie about millions of light years away for
him. We must remember that the novel is set in the dark days at the end of Japanese colonial
rule. The unique mood of this novel stems from such discord between the main character and
the era in which the novel is set. However, the fact that Yunsik who falls in love with his
brother’s lover Hyeonok volunteers as a student soldier to take his brother’s place shows the
great power of love.
By Choi Jaebong
www.hainaim.com
The Kamikaze Special Attack Force
(Gamigaje Dokgodai)
Kim Byeol-a
2010, 262 pages
ISBN 978-89-7337-257-7
26
LTI Korea
Hankyoreh
The Cruel Life of the Marginalized
The Cruel Life of the Marginalized by Ju Won-gyu, the winner of the 14th Hankyoreh Literary
Award, is a story of the four marginalized people: an old man on the extreme right who enjoys
wearing his old army uniform fully decorated with various medals; an intern who hopes to
become a full-time employee; a youth in his late teens whose only interest is playing computer
games; and a homeless man. The book narrates the story of their accidental involvement in a
revolt at the COEX Mall, regarded as the heart of capitalism. With wit and satire, Ju Won-gyu
depicts how the four strangers gather in the same space on the same day at the same time and
get entangled in an extraordinary and surprising event.
Part One of the novel, “November 24” describes using a timeline how each of the four
characters starts the day and ends up gathering at the COEX Mall at 4 pm. Part Two “The
Worst City” depicts their perilous adventure from the moment they get involved in the revolt
started by a group of armed people in lamb masks. In other words, the novel’s structure brings
together hitherto dispersed people and situations within the single space of the COEX Mall,
where everything explodes at once. Can the four marginalized people who appear a little
simple minded and strange counter the momentum of neo-liberalism which carries
contradiction and injustice?
By Choi Jaebong
Copyright Agent : Lee Gil-ho
www.hanibook.co.kr
The Cruel Life of the Marginalized
(Yeoroe Injong Janhoksa)
Ju Won-gyu
Hankyoreh Publishing Company
2009, 320 pages
ISBN 978-89-84313-41-5
27
Hankyoreh
The Name of the Girl Who Brushed
Past You
Choi Jin Young’s The Name of the Girl Who Brushed Past You was the winner of the 15th
Hankyoreh Literary Award in 2010. The protagonist is a girl who has run away from a violent
father and a helpless mother and wanders about in search of her “real mother.” The titles of the
five chapters-Sister Jangmi, Granny at Taebaek Restaurant, The Man at the Dilapidated
House, A Group of Singing Beggars and Yumi and Nari-are the various people with whom
the wandering girl takes shelter. In this regard, this novel employs a picaresque structure.
The novel has a clear parallel structure, which is one of the most notable formal characteristics
of a picaresque novel. In her own way, the girl undergoes development throughout the novel:
she gets her first period while she is in a truck full of singing beggars, and she notices that her
breasts have become the size of peaches when she checks into a motel with her boyfriend, who
is in a motorcycle gang. This growth, however, is not just physical in nature; it is also
accompanied by psychological maturity. Nevertheless, her growth is incomplete and twisted.
The ending where the girl impregnated by her boyfriend commits a horrific murder and dies
herself is the result of such twisted, limited growth. The ending also skillfully hides the real
reason the girl had to leave home in the first place.
By Choi Jaebong
Copyright Agent : Lee Gil-ho
www.hanibook.co.kr
The Name of the Girl Who Brushed Past You
(Dangsin Yeopeul Seuchyeogan Geu Sonyeoui Ireumeun)
Choi Jin Young
Hankyoreh Publishing Company
2010, 304 pages
ISBN 978-89-8431-414-6
28
LTI Korea
Human & Books
Zombie Attack on Daehangno
Zombie Attack on Daehangno (Daehangno Jombi Seupgyeok Sageon) is a work of new wave
literature. A type of fusion literature that exists between pure and popular literature, new wave
literature is currently a new trend in Korean fiction. It was a desire for storytelling and the
development of new cultural contents that has made new wave literature possible.
Newcomer Goo Hyun imported zombies, a popular subject matter for B-grade Hollywood
movies, into fiction. Zombie Attack on Daehangno combines zombies, an exotic topic of a
distinctive category, and Daehangno, a popular neighborhood among young Koreans. Despite
focusing on terrible fear and hardcore slaughter, this novel maintains lively mood from start to
finish through its black humor. The misguided love of a mad scientist who cultivated a zombie
virus and the greed of the ruling class create a great chaos. In the midst of this havoc, a group
of people including a delivery man, a former homicide detective and an employee at a take-out
coffee shop wage a bloody battle against the zombies that have appeared in Daehangno.
In this book, zombies are not monsters ruled by desire. Rather, they symbolize humans whose
reason and independence have been castrated by the ruling class. In a novel full of black
humor, discovering the charm of “zombies that are not monsters” offers not only an interesting
read but also a way to face an aspect of our distorted society.
By Lee Seungwon
Copyright Agent : Ha Eung-bag
Zombie Attack on Daehangno
(Daehangno Jombi Seupgyeok Sageon)
Goo Hyun
Human & Books
2009, 320 pages
ISBN 978-89-60780-58-3
29
Hyundaemunhak
That Man’s House
Park Wansuh is a true storyteller of our time and a great figure in Korean literature. The feast
of stories the author has unfolded since her debut in 1970 at over forty years of age has truly
been a great asset to Korean literature. The source of her unique loquaciousness is the power
of motherhood. As she once said, “the root of (her) literature was the mother.” Her unique
chattiness was a type of device that truly consoled the pain of those who have been pushed
aside by the competitive society.
That Man s House is Park’s fifteenth novel. She explained that this book was her “dedication
to literature,” which helped her endure painful and extremely difficult times. To her, literature
has been “a lotus of the heart,” “beauty blooming in the mud,” and “the power that brought
vitality to ordinary and boring everyday life.” What the author of more than 70 years has
unveiled is her “first love.” Her first love bloomed in the ruins of Seoul in the 1950s
immediately after the demonic fires of Korean War. That love was a “hellfire-like passion,” an
emotion that “burned like a fire pot” and “feelings of loss and helplessness about the
heartrending situation.” The faint memories of her first love still remain in her heart even after
more than 70 years. Who was the man that stole her heart?
By Lee Seungwon
Copyright Agent : Won mi yean
www.hdmh.co.kr
That Man s House
(Geu Namjane Jip)
Park Wansuh
Hyundaemunhak Publishing Co.
2008, 310 pages
ISBN 978-89-7275-427-5
30
LTI Korea
Hyundaemunhak
Just Say Sorry
Even without bringing Freud into it, guilt is one of the basic emotional requirements for people living in a
civilized society. Without guilt, crimes would be committed without any qualms, and nobody would ever
think there would be a price to pay. Picturing such a world of chaos is not a happy thought, and in that
sense guilt is like a ticket to the world of order and civilization. But is such order and civilization always
for the better? Lee Kiho has already described in his short story “The Age of Confession” a nightmare of a
world in which a subaltern protagonist existing outside of society and order has to confess his guilt to gain
entry, and revisits the theme from a new viewpoint with his latest novel Just Say Sorry.
Just Say Sorry starts with life in a shelter. Presumably built to give the homeless the benefits of
civilization, the shelter’ is a place of incarceration, violence, and forced labor rather than protection. The
wielders of violence keep up an endless stream of, “You know what’s your problem?” or “You know
what you did this time?” that eventually causes the victims to feel, amazingly enough, that they did do
something wrong. So the protagonists Sibong and the narrator “from that day on, we committed crimes
every day. Us, we didn’t know what our crime was, so we always confessed first.” This is an example of
how guilt is established through confession, and how human beings are tamed by that guilt.
Of course, the shelter where the protagonists are incarcerated cannot be seen as a typical example of
human society. The story of Just Say Sorry takes a new turn when the protagonists leave the shelter and
are incorporated into the daily lives of ordinary people. Looking for work, Sibong and the narrator realize
that what they do best is apologize. Think about it. Wouldn’t someone who can confess crimes and ask for
forgiveness when faced with totally unprovoked violence be able to admit to committing crimes and
apologize under any circumstances whatsoever? In other words, they are compulsive confessors and
automatic apologizers. So they plaster ads saying, “We do your apologies for you. For all the crimes
unwittingly committed against your parents, spouse, siblings, relatives, friends, neighbors, and colleagues,
we apologize for you,” and search for clients.
Apology by proxy seems to be an asinine concept at first glance. But the problem is not that simple.
Because ordinary people leading honest lives do “unwittingly” commit crimes against their “parents,
spouse, siblings, relatives, friends, neighbors, and colleagues.” They just don’t acknowledge them.
However, to our compulsive, automatic apologizers, their crimes are as clear as day. What is a crime?
Towards the end of the novel the director of the shelter asserts that: “the only way to forget a crime is to
pretend it never happened.” Most people likely live their lives according to the director’s words, but that
does not absolve their crimes. Then what is there to do? The weight of the question raised in Just Say
Sorry belies the light style it is written in.
By Yi Soo-hyung
www.hdmh.co.kr
Just Say Sorry
(Sagwaneun Jalhaeyo)
Lee Kiho
2009, 243 pages
ISBN 978-89-7275-450-3
31
Hyundaemunhak
Tita Tita
“Tita tita” is a pet name for a piano piece titled “Chopstick March.” Kim Seo Ryung’s novel
Tita Tita begins with the two main characters Soyeon and Miyu learning to play “Chopstick
March” in a piano class as children. The two have been together like Siamese twins since
when they were babies. In fact, they are so close that they even mix up their memories of their
first kiss, but their family background is very different. Soyeon is raised by a loving mother
and aunt after her parents’ divorce but she tries to fill the void left by her father’s absence with
the men she dates. On the other hand, sick and tired of the twisted love of her father, who
believes an academic career is all there is to life, and her mother, who cannot utter a word
without swearing, Miyu tries hard to deprecate love. The characters take turns narrating the
story and their relationship falters when Miyu sleeps with Soyeon’s boyfriend. Meanwhile,
Soyeon’s aunt, who missed the chance to get married, regrets sacrificing her life to take care of
her divorced sister and niece, and Miyu’s older sister, who married a wealthy man and left for
Germany, returns alone without her husband and children after suffering from depression. The
two main characters go through very painful and belated growing pains but “Chopstick
March” which returns at the end of the novel suggests the possibility of reconciliation between
the two women who would overcome the growing pains with their sisterly love.
By Choi Jaebong
www.hdmh.co.kr
Tita Tita
(Titatita)
Kim Seo Ryung
2010, 312 pages
ISBN 978-89-7275-459-6
32
LTI Korea
Hyundaemunhak
I Like Lao-Lao
The main character is a father in his mid-forties who has returned to Korea after working as
the manager at a construction site in Laos. Unlike him, those who started working for the
company at the same time as him “have already become executives without ever having to
work at a trying foreign site” and his other colleagues back in Seoul “treat him like an
employee dispatched from an outsider.” “While the children treated their darkly tanned father
like a migrant worker from a third world country, he too sometimes felt like they were not his
own but kids from some well-off family.” Then one day he gets a call from a woman named
Amey. She is someone whom he got to know in Laos and introduced to his brother-in-law.
Amey is not living the wonderful life she had dreamed of, either. Her husband has become an
alcoholic after his business collapsed. When asked whether her husband hits her, she says, “He
swears at me and beats me with his eyes. It hurts just the same.” The two meet up and end up
spending the night together after having too much to drink. They drink together again to shake
off their slip and return to their respective homes but end up repeating their mistake.
Gu’s novel I Like Lao-Lao portrays the escape journey they had no choice but to take. The first
line of the novel-“Where do we go”-foreshadows their uncertain future. However, there is
neither active resistance to escape their wretched reality nor passionate love to be found in
their journey.
By Choi Jaebong
www.hdmh.co.kr
I Like Lao-Lao
(Lao Laoga Joa)
Gu Kyung Mi
2010, 284 pages
ISBN 978-89-7275-461-9
33
Hyunmun Media
I Live with My Grandmother
Winner of the third World Youth Literature Prize, I Live with My Grandmother by Choi
Minkyoung is a story of sixteen year old Eunjae and her dead grandmother’s spirit which lives
inside her body. The idea of spirit possession often used in horror or mystery novels has been
applied to a youth novel with surprisingly good results.
Eunjae was adopted when she was six. Living with good parents and a younger brother who
was also adopted, she seems to be leading a happy life. However, she carries the pain of being
abandoned by her biological parents like a secret. The grandmother’s spirit which has entered
Eunjae’s body against her objection sometimes argues with her but also gives her the ability to
foresee the future and listens to her adolescent concerns. After reading Eunjae’s writing
assignment, her mother searches for her biological mother, who is about to get married, and
arranges a meeting between them. When they finally meet, Eunjae bursts into tears that she has
been hiding deep inside. A visit from her aunt, who never got to meet her mother (Eunjae’s
grandmother) because she too was abandoned immediately after birth, helps Eunjae recognize
a pain that mirrors her own and reconcile with her family and herself.
By Choi Jaebong
Copyright Agent : Seo jeong kweon
www.hmbooks.co.kr
I Live with My Grandmother
(Naneun Halmeoniwa Sanda)
Choi Minkyoung
Hyunmun Media
2009, 263 pages
ISBN 978-89-9275-163-6
34
LTI Korea
J
Joongang Books
Jaeum & Moeum
Jakkajungsin
K
Kang
L
Literature of Literature
Preparing My Own Home
Jaeum & Moeum
Korea is a real estate empire. In Korea, a house is not only a place of residence but also the
most important property and a symbol of social status. It is therefore odd that there are not
many literary works that deal with such an important issue. Kim Yoon-young’s novel
Preparing My Own Home takes us to the center of a real estate tornado. A self-proclaimed
third-rate writer Subin, who is about to lose her house because of her husband’s debt, accepts
help from a strange old man, who offers to save the house under one condition: she has to find
a home for those who are in need, taking into account their financial and family circumstances.
Initially almost completely ignorant about real estate, Subin begins to visit real estate agents,
attend court-ordered foreclosure auctions and learn the secrets of home buying techniques like
mortgage loans and deposit-based lease. It may seem like a “guide to real estate” but the
touching stories of the people she meets add a very strong aspect of humanism to the novel. To
her question “is it really impossible for personal desire and public good to co-exist?” the
conclusion of the novel offers a rather idealistic yet positive answer.
By Choi Jaebong
Copyright Agent : Choi min seok
www.jamo21.net
Preparing My Own Home
(Nae Jip Maryeonui Yeowang)
Kim Yoon-young
Jaeum & Moeum Publishing Co.
2009, 344 pages
ISBN 978-89-570-7474-9
36
LTI Korea
April Fish
Jaeum & Moeum
Kwon Ji-ye’s April Fish is unique in that it combines innocent and pure love with crime and
mystery, almost like Love Story meets The Silence of the Lambs. Seoin, a novelist and yoga
instructor, and Seonu, a freelance photographer and lecturer at college, meet for a magazine
interview and immediately fall in love. The first half of the novel portrays the meeting of a
beautiful man and woman and the story of their passionate love affair. Up to this point the
novel seems like a typical romance but soon a dark shadow falls on them. Seoin receives
threatening calls and e-mails, and another university student who is in love with Seonu
disappears. At the same time, secrets and suspicion that surround Seonu’s past like a fog leads
Seoin to the torment of anxiety and doubt. However, Seonu is not the only one with secrets.
Seoin also has memories of pain that are equal to Seonu’s: The mother who disappeared when
she was a child, an ecstatic yet terrible incident she experienced as a teenager and a son she
had with a married man whom she raised as her nephew. Their fatal love which takes place
“despite everything” finally ends with the death of one of them.
By Choi Jaebong
www.jamo21.net
April Fish
(Saworui Mulgogi)
Kwon Ji-ye
2010, 360 pages
ISBN 978-89-5707-479-4
37
The Story of My Military Service
Jaeum & Moeum
The girl you meet for the first time on a blind date asks you about your military service. You
cannot believe it! Aren’t the military service and football the two topics women hate the most?
In that sense, the teacher Sangkeum in Kim Chong-kwang’s novel The Story of My Military
Service is an exception to the rule. Her date So Panbeom finally caves in to Sangkeum’s
repeated requests and grudgingly begins to talk about his experience in the military service,
which proves that he is a typical Korean man through and through. His stories about the
military service are familiar to all Koreans. Sadly, the person who sees him off to the military
training camp is not his girlfriend, lover or wife-like everyone else-but his brother. He is
allocated to his unit on the coast as a rifle soldier. He reminisces about the “loving” beatings
he received from his superiors; the severe punishments he himself later meted out as a
superior; the hunger he and his girlfriend had to endure during her visits because he did not
have any money; and the captain, who got injured from a silly mistake during a drill but
stopped the emergency helicopter from coming because he was afraid of his punishment. Kim
Chong-kwang dramatizes the all-too-familiar stories into humorous episodes through his
unique wit and satire. Though some of the stories make us laugh, they also make us shiver
with horror at certain aspects of the military that remind us of our society.
By Choi Jaebong
www.jamo21.net
The Story of My Military Service
(Gundae Iyagi)
Kim Chong-kwang
2010, 292 pages
ISBN 978-89-5707-487-9
38
LTI Korea
Sohyeon
Jaeum & Moeum
Kim Insook’s novel Sohyeon looks at the eight-year period from the moment Joseon’s King
Injo kneeled in front of Emperor Taizong of the Qing Dynasty at Samjeondo in recognition of
his defeat and let Crown Prince Sohyeon be taken to Shenyang as hostage to the moment the
prince finally returned to Joseon in 1645. The main event of the novel is the murder of Sim
Seokgyeong, the Second State Councilor Sim Giwon’s son who was taken hostage along with
the prince. Seokgyeong, who was taken to the enemy state as a boy, had the greatest respect
for the prince. He also spied on Qing’s affairs and sent secret messages to Joseon. It appears
that his updates about the prince’s close relationship with the enemy played a role in the death
of the prince following his return to Joseon. The backdrop of the various events surrounding
the prince, chiefly Seokgyeong’s “betrayal” and his father’s treason, is the political topography
of China, i.e. the fall of Ming and the rise of Qing. When he is forced to render his service in
the war to bring down the Ming Dynasty, the prince faces an identity crisis arising from the
power struggle of the time. The gravity and the tragic elements of the events in the prince’s
lifetime are shown more effectively by the author’s aggressive writing style. Just like the
prince, who is desperately trying to swallow his tears, the author keeps his emotions to a
minimum and maintains a calm and concise style of writing.
By Choi Jaebong
www.jamo21.net
Sohyeon
Kim Insook
2010, 332 pages
ISBN 978-89-5707-484-8
39
Youth in the Deep Blue
Jaeum & Moeum
Many wise men of the world have reflected on love as a kind of irrational disease. However,
claims that love is the meaning of life and the flower of existence are equally widespread and
persuasive. Lee Ji-min’s novel Youth in the Deep Blue supposes the existence of a “love virus”
from the very beginning. It is a fatal virus that makes the heart race as if one is in love, in
addition to causing profuse perspiration and the desire to confess feelings of love from the
moment of contamination. It can lead to death in the worst cases. One day, Ok Taekseon, a
thirty-something scenario writer who is unlucky both in work and love, goes on a blind date
with a dull researcher Nam Supil. Supil falls in love with Taekseon after the date and pursues
her aggressively. Then, Teakseon receives a call informing her that Supil has died suddenly.
Having concluded that Supil had contracted the new virus, the authorities keep track of
Taekson who has been in contact with Supil. Taekseon is on the run with Supil’s co-worker Yi
Gyun and the two seem to develop feelings of love for each other. Though they are “cured”
once they are injected with a vaccine developed by Professor Seong, they somehow feel sorry
that nothing happened between them. Why? Because though love is a disease, it is also an exit
that can lead us out of a lethargic life.
By Choi Jaebong
www.jamo21.net
Youth in the Deep Blue
(Cheongchun Geukhangi)
Lee Ji-min
2010, 268 pages
ISBN 978-89-5707-498-5
40
LTI Korea
Hwang Jini, Vol. 1 & 2
Jaeum & Moem
The novel Hwang Jini deals with the life of Hwang Jini, a well-known gisaeng (female
entertainer) and poet of the Joseon era. A free spirit who enjoyed her freedom to the full not
with standing social prejudice and oppression, she was a woman whose gaze alone could
charm men.
The author Jeon Gyeonglin, who is a writer known for her “demonic intensity and bewitching
imagination,” has been interested in the trapped lives of women since her debut.
The novel Hwang Jini offers a new interpretation of Hwang that goes beyond the existing
patriarchal view. The anecdotes about the scholar from a neighboring village who died pining
for Hwang, the Buddhist monk who succumbed to her temptation and the scholar who did not,
along with the stories of her prostitution all over the country, have depicted her as a femme
fatale or a sensual gisaeng. Instead, Jeon Gyeonglin focuses on her life and love in reality and
her spiritual integrity, which moved her to respect her body despite her profession.
Though various Korean authors have written about Hwang Jini, Jeon is the first contemporary
female writer to have fictionalized her life properly. Thanks to Jeon’s female perspective,
Hwang Jini comes back to life inthe novel Hwang Jini, moving away from the established
male perspective.
By Min Hyunbaei
www.jamo21.net
Hwang Jini, Vol. 1 & 2
Jeon Gyeonglin
2004, 282 pages
ISBN 89-5707-111-3 04810
41
Donkeys
Jaeum & Moem
Bae Su-a is a writer who is considered to have established her own unique world of literature.
She not only creates dreamlike images and stories removed from stifling tradition and
ideology, but also portrays in detail and in a dry, cynical style the deviating and rebellious
psychology of youths who find themselves in abnormal situations. The existential writer
constantly concerned with “how to write” can be found in many of her works. She has a
following of passionate readers who consider themselves cult fans.
Donkeys (Dangnagwideul), a post-genre fiction which breaks down the boundary between
fiction and non-fiction, creates a very unique atmosphere. By the time the reader has
progressed from the beginning filled with the language of derision to halfway through the book
where the stories of books and music form the main plot, it becomes difficult to tell whether
this book is indeed a novel. The author has explained that the “ I’ in the book is a spiritual ego
that lives in literature and art rather than a person living in reality” and that this book is a
fiction about an artist that explores the interior of the writer.
She says that donkeys symbolize the declining mind. In general, this book scorns and mocks
the world that is like a donkey. Though it is without a coherent plotline, the novel has a certain
charm that continues to attract readers’ attention.
By Min Hyunbae
www.jamo21.net
Donkeys
(Dangnagwideul)
Bae Su-a
2005, 304 pages
ISBN 89-5707-160-1
42
LTI Korea
Jellyfish
Jaeum & Moem
Hae Yi-soo’s first collection of short stories The Desert with Kangaroos (Kaenggeoruga
Inneun Samak) (2006) drew heavily on his experiences as a student in Australia. Of the seven
stories in second collection titled Jellyfish, three, including the cover story, are based in
Australia. His latest book also includes stories that take place in Kenya and Nepal; “The Nepal
Trilogy,” in particular, which takes up almost half of the book, can be regarded as the heart of
the collection. The main character of the first story in the trilogy, “Into High Altitude
Sickness,” embarks on his climb to Mount Everest after four years of doing the housework
instead of his wife. When he arrives in Nepal, however, he is faced with the irony that a credit
card-symbol of civilization-is necessary in a place so far removed from civilization. The
second story in the trilogy, “Lukla Airport,” portrays with cynicism the selfish and snobbish
behaviors of people who are waiting at Lukla Airport for the plane to Katmandu, which has
been delayed due to weather conditions. The last story, “Out of Lumbini” delves into the gap
between appearance and essence through a rickshaw runner who seems pitiful and innocent at
first but eventually reveals his true ugly self. The author’s sharp words criticize human
hypocrisy set against the backdrop of grand and mysterious nature.
By Choi Jaebong
www.jamo21.net
Jellyfish
(Jellipiswi)
Hae Yi-soo
2009, 352 pages
ISBN 978-89-57074-62-6
43
Mid-afternoon Gaze
Jaeum & Moem
Mid-afternoon Gaze by Lee Seung-u, who has been tenaciously pursuing the religious and
abstract world, is a story of a 29-year old man who is looking for his “father.” The book begins
with a quote from The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge written by Rainer Maria Rilke: “So,
this is where people come in order to live, I would have rather thought: to die.” The young
man, who has been living a fairly content life with his single mother, catches tuberculosis and
goes to a country house on the outskirts of Seoul to recover. While staying in the country, he
meets his neighbor, a retired psychology professor, and decides to look for his father. After
much trouble, he finally finds his father, who unfortunately draws a firm line between them:
“Why did you look for me?... You shouldn’t expect anything from me.” To the father who is
married to a wealthy woman and running for the head of the local government, the sudden
appearance of his son is simply an obstacle. The man’s situation overlaps with the story of the
twin warriors of the Navaho tribe in which the father rejects his sons who have come back
from death, instead of welcoming them. The man coughs up blood and “murders” his father by
filling the notebook with his writing before going into the sacred forest to perform the ritual of
removing all his clothes. The father who is described in the book as a “transcendental inner
being and the great gaze of the unknown” is also read as the absolute being.
By Choi Jaebong
www.jamo21.net
Mid-afternoon Gaze
(Hannajui Siseon)
Lee Seung-u
2009, 160 pages
ISBN 978-89-5707-469-5
44
LTI Korea
Did You Say Love, Seonyeong?
Jakkajungsin
Did You Say Love, Seonyeong? (Sarangirani, Seonyeonga) is an “intellectual theory of love” in
the form of a novel. Author Kim Yeon-su read countless books on love before writing this
book. His “creative nonfiction techniques” employed successfully by Milan Kundera and
Alain de Botton, is used effectively in this novel.
The basic structure of the book is a love triangle between a woman, Seonyeong and two men,
Gwangsu and Jinu. Though Gwangsu marries Seonyeong who used to be Jinu’s girlfriend, he
remains jealous of their relationship and begins to question it. Unable to forget Seonyeong,
Jinu tries to meet with her again, while Seonyeong, to keep herself from the temptation of her
old love, vows her devotion to Gwangsu.
The author makes this simple story interesting by using “creative nonfiction techniques” and
appropriate symbols of mass culture. For example, inebriated Jinu says “Seonyeong, I love
you” (a famous catchphrase used by a women’s internet portal site in Korea) to Seonyeong
who is about to marry his friend Gwangsu. When she refuses his plea to sleep with him, he
asks in despair, “How- how can love change?” (A line from the Korean movie, One Fine
Spring Day).
Kim Yeon-su is one of the leading young Korean writers. He is a poet turned novelist who
demonstrates clearly the power of narrative. He has published a number of novels and essay
collections, in addition to Did You Say Love, Seonyeong?, and won various literary awards.
By Min Hyunbae
Copyright Agent : Ahn Kang hwi
Did You Say Love, Seonyeong?
(Sarangirani, Seonyeonga)
Kim Yeon-su
Jakkajungsin Publishing Co.
2008, 196 pages
ISBN 978-89-7288-333-3
45
The Hiding, Sleeping, and Wandering
Wretches
Joongang Books
Han Cha-hyun has been writing novels in a unique style such as Super-humans
(Goeryeokdeul), Murder at the Yeonggwang Pawnshop (Yeong-gwang Jeondangpo Sarin
Sageon), When My Left Wrist Is Cold (Oenjjok Sonmogi Siril Ttae), and The Inn (Yeogwan).
The recently published The Hiding, Sleeping, and Wandering Wretches is the sixth of the Pulp
Fiction series by Joongang Books. Pulp fiction, a popular fiction genre that emerged in the
1920s, refers to popular novels published on cheap pulp paper. It strives to be interesting
literature that appeals to a wide audience rather than a second-rate dime novel.
Han remarked that he had Rashomon by Akutagawa Ryunosuke in mind when he planned his
novel The Hiding, Sleeping, and Wandering Wretches. Similar to Rashomon, this novel also
pursues how a case surrounding death is reinterpreted and restructured. It also portrays how
such a case influences an individual’s life. The narrator, Hyeongi and Seungil, close friends all
in early twenties, go to Gangchon and meet two girls nicknamed Blondie and Bizarro Bunny.
This novel is about an incident that takes place overnight between the five people. Full of
unexpected circumstances and bizarre incidents, as well as the author’s inventive imagination,
this novel is packed with Han Cha-hyun’s unique talent.
By Lee Seungwon
Copyright Agent : Rachel Ahn
www.joongangbooks.co.kr
The Hiding, Sleeping, and Wandering Wretches
(Sumeun Saekki, Jamdeun Saekki, Hemaen Saekki)
Han Cha-hyun
Joongang Books
2008, 160 pages
ISBN 978-89-6188-755-7
46
LTI Korea
The Art of Reading Life from the
Margins
Kang
Kim Wonwoo’s novel is full of ruthless yet thrilling satire and acrid invective that target a
vulgar and ignoble part of Korean society. Since his early works, which dealt with the lives of
the corrupt middle class, he has been dissecting the issues of Korean society through astute
observations. Beginning in the 1990s, the focus of Kim’s literary world shifted from the lives
of the corrupt middle class to “refugee consciousness.” For him, “refugee consciousness” is
the collective unconscious that defines Korean society.
The Art of Reading Life from the Margins (Moseorieseoui Insaeng Dokbeop) also reflects the
“refugee consciousness” he has constantly been exploring since the 1990s. The main character
of this novel is Bak Seongdeuk, the North Korean who crossed the border to come to South
Korea. Bak spent his entire life as a surgeon and professor of medicine at a regional national
university and died after turning 88. While compiling a commemorative volume on Professor
Bak, his students come across large gaps and chasms in Bak Seongdeuk’s life that cannot be
restored. Bak’s life represents the lives of modern Korean “refugees” who had to leave their
hometowns and wander throughout the country for various reasons including the Korean War.
With delectable expressions and words, Kim unfolds the typical life of a refugee in Korea
through Bak Seongdeuk, a life that cannot be completely restored.
By Lee Seungwon
Copyright Agent : Kim Hyunju
[email protected] +82 2 325 9566~7
The Art of Reading Life from the Margins
(Moseorieseoui Insaeng Dokbeop)
Kim Wonwoo
Kang Publishing
2008, 307 pages
ISBN 978-89-8218-111-5
47
Goodbye!, Chupachups Kid
Goodbye!, Chupachups Kid portrays the meeting and parting between the unemployed 26year-old Huisu and Daehui who has lost his sense of belonging due to his family’s emigration.
The two characters meet one day by chance-as if by destiny-and their love is a series of new
adventures. “The first place visited together, the first words to be uttered to each other, the first
touch and the pace of time at the first encounter.” However, such newness may just be another
name for banality. What felt new might have in fact been just the sight of the self in love. As
made clear in the prologue, the newness revealed by love lies in the discovery a “new me,”
that is, “the I’ who was hitherto unknown even to myself visiting me without notice and
coming face to face with the new yet familiar aspect of myself.” This novel is by no means a
simple romance that deals only with the sweet adventures of love. As Daehui endured his
parents’ divorce and spent his childhood abroad, loneliness used to drive him to act out by
stealing candies. Even as an adult, however, he cannot accept Huisu’s love. “The malicious
visitor has departed.” Such sudden and violent farewell from Daehui leaves Huisu with the
task of healing her scars of love. Other characters in the novel who bear similar scars from
their own experiences help Huisu grow through her pain.
By Choi Jaebong
Copyright Agent : Lim Eunhee
www.dhmunhak.com
Goodbye!, Chupachups Kid
(Annyeong, Chupachupseu Kideu)
Choi Okjung
The Literature of Literature
2009, 335 pages
ISBN 978-89-43103-53-8
48
LTI Korea
Devotion
Devotion is a love story between a young anarchist from Joseon and a Japanese woman during
Japanese colonization written by Kim Byul-ah, who has been concentrating on historical
fiction since winning the 100 million won in prize money at the 1st World Literature Award
hosted by Segye Ilbo for her first novel Misil. The main characters Bak Yeol and Kaneko
Fumiko are historical figures who were sentenced to death for attempting to assassinate the
Japanese emperor at his wedding. Their sentences were later reduced to life imprisonment but
Kaneko chose to commit suicide shortly after the commutation. Though she is born a citizen of
the Imperial Japan, Kaneko spends an unstable childhood as an illegitimate child and is sold to
her aunt who was then living in Joseon. Her unhappy youth in Joseon and the March First
Independence Movement she witnesses before returning to Japan leave an indelible mark on
her mind in which resistance against power and solidarity with the weak lie at the core. In due
course, Kaneko joins the socialist movement and comes across an interesting poem titled “I
Am a Son of a Bitch” at her friend’s house. Upon meeting the author of the poem Bak Yeol,
Kaneko says “I know you through my own self. Irrespective of nationality and gender, we are
of the same kind the same race.” The book is intensely absorbing, filled with dramatic
incidents leading to “high treason” against the heart of Japanese imperialism and their
background stories unfold.
By Choi Jaebong
www.dhmunhak.com
Devotion
(Yeorae)
Kim Byul-ah
2009, 320 pages
ISBN 978-89-4310356-9
49
Kissing My Life
The main character of Lee Chunghae’s novel Kissing My Life is a 31 year-old web designer
Nam Songhui who, believing in her own talent and experience, has turned freelance; her art
critic boyfriend believes in having fun but does not want to be tied down. Songhui states, “I
have maintained this relationship with him because I think this is the best way for a single
woman to be successful at work.” At first glance, this novel seems to represent a typical model
of the “chick lit” that has become popular in Korea in the past few years. However, the novel
takes an unexpected turn when she hears of her father’s mysterious death. The police
investigation reveals that her father had a girlfriend who was 43 years younger than him and
that her mother has been keeping a pseudo mother-daughter relationship with a young bride
whom she met while working for family rental services that specializes in providing fake
families for weddings. What is more, her tough, masculine brother turns out to be gay. The art
critic boyfriend who considers himself a “free man” offers hardly any support to Songhui who
cannot find comfort in her own family. Her existing values have been destroyed but new ones
have not yet been formed. Thirty-one year-old Songhui is still going through her growing
pains.
By Choi Jaebong
www.dhmunhak.com
Kissing My Life
(Makdareun Golmogeseo Sosaoreuda)
Lee Chunghae
2009, 356 pages
ISBN 978-89-431-0359-0
50
LTI Korea
The Watchtower
The Watchtower by Joo Won-gyu, winner of the 2009 Hankyoreh Literary Award, reminds us
of the Yongsan tragedy that took place early last year in Seoul. The main character Minu is a
missionary at a big church called Semyeong. While waiting to be ordained as a pastor, he has
been writing sermons for Jo Jeongin, who succeeded Minu’s father as the Senior Pastor. The
central conflict of the novel is between Pastor Jeongin who supports the redevelopment of the
traditional market in front of the church and the tenants who launch a campaign against it.
After discovering that Yunseo, his long-term friend and theology school colleague, is leading
the tenants’ campaign, Minu is also pulled into the conflict against his will.
As the tension over the redevelopment plan intensifies, an anonymous post on the Semyeong
Church website forms another axis of the novel. The post holds that Elazar ben Yair, a member
of the Zealots who took part in the siege of Masada in the first century, met the resurrected
Jesus in person. The author of the post is identified as Yunseo. Yunseo accepts laborer Han
Gyeongtae, the spiritual leader of the tenants who performs “miracles” like healing the sick
and the wounded, as the resurrected Jesus; thus, history and fiction intersect in this novel,
which benefits from the author’s background as a pastor of Nomad Church.
By Choi Jaebong
www.dhmunhak.com
The Watchtower
(Mangnu)
Joo Won-gyu
2010, 320 pages
ISBN 978-89-4310-369-9
51
M
Maroniebooks
Minumsa
Milionhouse
Moonji
Moonhak Soochup
Munidang
Munhakdongne
So Light to Be Left Only with Things to
Leave Behind
Pak Kyongni, author of Land (Toji), passed away on May 5, 2008 at the age of 82. In addition
to being a writer, she was the godmother of Korean literary circles, giving her full support to
the creative works of writers through her Toji Foundation of Culture. The epic novel Land, a
monumental work in the history of Korean literature, transformed the turbulent modern
Korean history and individual hardships between 1897 and 1945 into fiction. Considered a
masterpiece of modern Korean literature, it has already been translated into English, French
and Japanese and is currently being translated into German.
Maroniebooks
So Light to Be Left Only with Things to Leave Behind (Beorigo Gal Geonman Namaseo Cham
Holgabunhada) is Park’s posthumous collection of poems. It is the life story of the aged writer
who firmly held onto her passion for literature to the last moment of her life. In the poem titled
Han, Park says While the painful memories of the body are easily forgotten, / The wounds of
the heart tend to grow worse. Moreover, these wounds of the heart are not hers alone; they are
also shared by all those who fell victim to the ruling ideology that runs through modern
Korean history. In this book, the reader will be able to recognize the benevolent author who
has endured and overcome the hard times when beasts growled outside his door.
By Lee Seungwon
Copyright Agent : Choi Hongkyu
www.maroniebooks.com
So Light to Be Left Only with Things to Leave Behind
(Beorigo Gal Geonman Namaseo Cham Holgabunhada)
Pak Kyongni
Maroniebooks
2008, 133 pages
ISBN 978-89-60531-59-8
54
LTI Korea
The Painter of Wind, Vol. 1 & 2
Written by Lee Jungmyung, who is praised for “having opened a new era of Korean faction’
(a portmanteau of facts and fiction)” with his The Deep Rooted Tree (Ppuri Gipeun Namu)
(2006), The Painter of Wind (Baramui Hwawon) is “an art novel that gives rebirth to history
and works of art with the author’s unique imagination” and “a novel of manners that recreates
vividly the back alleys of Joseon.”
The book intertwines the meeting and parting of Kim Hongdo and Sin Yunbok, the leading
artists who defined the eighteenth-century style of painting in late Joseon, conspiracy
surrounding the royal family and the court, and the inevitable and fateful confrontation of the
two artists in a style characterized by the swift pace and great tension of the prose, the
elaborate plot and development.
Milionhouse
As the novel unravels the lives and art of Kim Hongdo and Sin Yunbok, who, despite belonging to
the same era, had very distinct styles of painting, it also serves as an introduction to the culture of the
late Joseon era. In addition to art historical knowledge such as the form and style set by Dohwaseo
(Bureau of Painting) at the time, the clash between traditional ink and color paintings, iconography
and paper making, scenes from everyday life, including Saengdocheong (Office of Apprentice
Painters) at Dohwaseo, blacksmith’s shop and paper factories on Yukjo Street (the Street of Six
Ministries), alleys and village wells, government-licensed shops and washing areas, all come to life
vividly in The Painter of Wind. Some 30 works of Sin Yunbok and Kim Hongdo are reproduced in
color to facilitate the reader’s understanding. The novel has been receiving enthusiastic responses
from readers since it was turned into a TV series by the same title.
By Kim Jumki
Copyright Agent : Jang min jeong
The Painter of Wind
(Baramui Hwawon), Vol. 1 & 2
Lee Jungmyung
Milionhouse Publishing
2008, 266 pages
ISBN 978-89-91643-26-0 04810
55
Marriage Is Crazy Thing
As suggested in its title Marriage Is Crazy Thing (Gyeolhoneun, Michin Jisida), this book
explores the secret desires behind love and marriage in modern society. Free from social
customs and morals, the lovers of the novel reveal in their candid conversations the hidden
hypocritical and evil nature of the customs and morals that dictate marriage.
Minumsa
The main character, a part-time university lecturer, is a bachelor. He meets a woman through
an acquaintance and goes to bed with her on their very first night. Though the woman soon
marries another man, the main character and the woman continue to meet and have sex. The
book won the Contemporary Writers Award in 2000. Concerning the author’s style, the judges
observed that it has “the quickness to throw a hook at a decisive moment after continuous light
jabs. The last paragraph has the effect of knocking out the readers with a right hook.” They
also praised that the author “suggested a way for fictions to survive in the era of digital media”
and that the book was “indeed youthful.”
With an easy yet sharp gaze, the author exposes the reality where marriage is presented as a
relationship of pure love when it is in fact based on economic exchange. Following his view of
artistic creation-that he “will never add a layer of hypocrisy to the capitalistic desire
embedded in human nature”-he freely mocks the falsity that lies behind a good, warm heart.
The book gained even more popularity when it was made into a movie.
By Min Hyunbae
Copyright Agent : Michelle Nam
www.minumsa.com
Marriage Is Crazy Thing
(Gyeolhoneun, Michin Jisida)
Lee Man Gyo
Minumsa Publishing Group
2005, 307 pages
ISBN 978-89-374-2028-3
56
LTI Korea
A Spy Who Went after the Moon
A Spy Who Went after the Moon (Dareul Jjonneun Seupai) is a story of love, ambition and feud
among museum curators. Curators Hyeonjung, his long-time lover Hongju and friend Seunggi
are the main characters of the story. Hyeonjung is a selfish and mean person who has stolen
Hongju from Seunggi. He also steals Seunggi’s thesis and presents it as his own. On the other
hand, Seunggi, though intelligent and talented, is weak in character, always taken advantage of
by Hyeonjung. At the center of their relationship is Hongju who has been cut off from her
family because she loved her own brother when she was young. She is completely devoted to
Hyeonjung who resembles her brother. The book deals with the actual story of three characters
as well as the spies of the Three Kingdoms era who appear in Hyeonjung’s report.
Minumsa
Following the desires of the three characters, A Spy Who Went after the Moon gives a scathing
description of the other side of life. It is also full of interesting stories as it provides a vivid
account of historical topics and archaeological knowledge. On choosing the title A Spy Who
Went after the Moon, author Bang Hyeon-hui said “Though people desire to get close to the
moon, it is always beyond reach. At the same time, a spy has the desire to manipulate other
people without revealing what he is pursuing.”
Bang worked as a nurse before she became a full-time writer; out of her experiences at the
hospital, where she constantly confronted life and death, came her understanding that “humans
fall to pieces in an instant.” Such experience and understanding are projected onto her
characters, adding to the depth of the novel.
By Min Hyunbae
www.minumsa.com
A Spy Who Went after the Moon
(Dareul Jjotneun Seupai)
Bang Hyeon-hui
2008, 320 pages
ISBN 978-89-3748-217-5
57
Bridge Partner
Minumsa
Bridge Partner is the third collection of short stories by the late-blooming writer Han Junghee.
This collection contains seven short- to medium-length stories and apart from “The Bad Guy”
(Nappeun Jasik), all six stories deal with the everyday life and existential concerns of middleaged women. The main characters of the title story “Bridge Partner” are Miho who plays the
piano at a nightclub and Yeongjeong whose only amusement after her civil servant husband
eloped with his lover is going to the bridge club once a week. As bridge partners, the two win
the first place in a competition and get a chance to go to London. However, for both Miho who
had been denied acceptance to London’s Royal Academy of Music as a child piano prodigy
and Yeongjeong whose husband is in London with his lover, the capital of Great Britain is
only a place that would exacerbate their wounds. However, they open up their hearts to each
other and with the strength gained from sharing each other’s pain, they finally decide to go to
London. The other stories in the collection also explore topics specific to the lives of middleaged women: the husband’s business failure and subsequent illness; wrinkle removal
procedures; and the compulsion toward suicide. This book has been successful in opening a
new chapter that can be termed “literature for the middle aged.”
By Choi Jaebong
www.minumsa.com
Bridge Partner
(Beuriji Pateuneo)
Han Junghee
2009, 249 pages
ISBN 978-89-374-8244-1
58
LTI Korea
The Private Life of the Nation
Lee Eung-joon’s novel The Private Life of the Nation takes place in 2016 after South Korea’s
absorption of North Korea. At the center of the plot is a gang organization made up of former
North Korean Army soldiers. After the North-South unification in 2011, a mysterious murder
occurs within the organization formed by the ex-soldiers of North Korean Army and Lee Gang
comes across a shocking conspiracy during his investigation.
Minumsa
While actively using the elements of film noir such as murder, burning of the body, betrayal
and shadowing, this book has also added common features of thriller including conspiracy,
pursuit, mystery and plot twists. With bars where North Korean beauties sell drinks and their
bodies and a North Korean Army gang organization, the fictional Korea in the story seems to
have gathered all the negative aspects of the North and the South and ardently calls our
attention to a “unified Korea as dystopia.” It could be considered a political novel in that it
deals with unification but also a type of science fiction in that it is set in the near future. Either
way it seems to dramatically accentuate the shadows of North and South Korean societies
today.
The book consists of 49 short chapters with a series of intense scenes that are similar to those
in films. Since it is not a chronological narrative, readers will also enjoy reconstructing the
story like completing a puzzle.
By Choi Jae-bong
www.minumsa.com
The Private Life of the Nation
(Gukgaui Sasaenghwal)
Lee Eung-joon
2009, 261 pages
ISBN 978-89-374-8256-4
59
Dreams of a Subway Peddler
Winner of the 33rd Today’s Writer Award, Woo Seung-mi’s Dreams of a Subway Peddler
looks at the lives of the socially weak such as subway peddlers and disabled people. The main
character Cheori used to be a comedian at a broadcasting station but has been fired for being
not funny. Now he works daily as a peddler, selling toothbrushes on the subway. He meets the
legendary sales king Mr. Yi who teaches him the secret of subway sales. He also meets the
deaf and mute Suji who distributes hand-written pamphlets asking for help; Suji’s handsome
brother Hyocheol who shows talent as a writer despite being blind, deaf and mute; and his
beautiful fiancee Jihyo who is a university student. Although the story focuses on the havenots often with a painful personal history, it is not as dark or depressing as one may think.
Rather, it presents a cheerful, affectionate humor from the beginning to the end, as if Cheori
was trying to prove his talent as a comedian.
Minumsa
The reason the story is not sad or painful despite the characters that lead unhappy lives by
objective standards is the love between them. In particular, as can be seen in Cheori’s decision
to marry Suji who is pregnant with another man’s child, the author portrays how people who
are not linked by blood can form a kind of alternative family.
By Choi Jaebong
[email protected] +82 2 515 2000 (Ext.206)
www.minumsa.com
Dreams of a Subway Peddler
(Narara Japsangin)
Woo Seung-mi
2009, 261 pages
ISBN 978-89-3748-265-6
60
LTI Korea
The Puzzle
Minumsa
The Puzzle is the fourth collection of short stories by Kwon Ji-ye, the winner of Dongin
Literary Award and Yi Sang Literary Award. It deals with the drama surrounding women’s
sex, marriage and love from diverse perspectives. The female characters in Kwon’s stories
attempt to salvage their incomplete and wounded lives through adventurous love. They gladly
plunge into adventure even if the result of such love is another disillusion. All the main female
characters in “BED,” “The Words of the Wind” and “Nebi, Let’s Go to the Green Hills” give
themselves completely to love with a man other than their husbands-sometimes married menand end up wounded beyond recovery. The main characters in “Where the Flower Has Fallen”
and “Deep Blue Black” set off on an adventure with the slim hope of finding someone who
can save them from the traps of their confused lives. However, neither the prison-like life nor
the breakaway full of danger and uncertainty can provide the ultimate solution. It is their
awareness of this inevitable failure that leads them to “disappear.” In “The Words of the
Wind,” the first-person narrator leaves a will to both her husband and lover, as she prepares to
leave for the Himalayas, while the woman of “Deep Blue Black” jumps into the sea and the
protagonist of “The Heroine O Yeongsil” kills herself in a car crash. In her latest collection of
short stories, the author seems to emphasize that women’s desire and deviation are still
important issues to women.
By Choi Jaebong
www.minumsa.com
The Puzzle
(Peojeul)
Kwon Ji-ye
2009, 274 pages
ISBN 978-89-374-8278-6
61
Immortality
Minumsa
Yi Mun-yol’s two-volume novel Immortality portrays the life of An Jung-geun, a symbol of
Korea’s struggle for independence, like a critical biography. An Jung-geun assassinated Ito
Hirobumi on a railway platform in Harbin, Manchuria on October 26, 1909 and was executed
the following year on March 26, 1910 at Lushun Prison in China. Therefore, March 2010
marks the 100th anniversary of his death. An was a patriotic martyr, not a terrorist in the
Korean context; a general in that he was the chief of staff for the Korean Independence Army;
and a true hero, based on the bravery of his action. The author, however, feels that these three
titles, while appropriate, have limitations. Yi employs the abstract concept of “immortality” to
symbolize An Jung-geun, in an attempt to describe him as a person who gained immortality by
throwing himself to love for his country and people. Above all, Yi focuses on removing the
seal of martyrdom that has been placed on An Jung-geun. Yi unpacks each of the labels that
have been assigned to An, such as a terrorist, a Catholic, a reckless idealistic revolutionary, a
soldier, an idealist, etc., and brings him back to reality. He reconstructs 30 years of An’s
passionate life by relying primarily on objective facts rather than fictional imagination.
By Choi Jaebong
www.minumsa.com
Immortality
(Bulmyeol)
Yi Mun-yol
2010, 407 pages
ISBN 978-89-3748-296-0
62
LTI Korea
Monster on the Border
Students at Eungang High organize themselves to take collective action against their school,
which offers education to all grade levels from kindergarten to university and belongs to a
foundation established by a retired army general. Though they seem to be protesting about
their uniform, their protest is in fact the product of the accumulating anger against the tyranny
of the president’s relatives who have had the school in their back pocket, embezzled school
funds, and fired conscientious teachers. Demonstrations take place in the sports field under the
leadership of the student president, and physical confrontation ensues when guidance
counselors and gym teachers arrive with members of youth gangs to suppress the students. In a
tense situation where riot cops also join in and the demonstrating students find themselves
cornered, the legendary fighter and friend of the first-person narrator appears and the situation
turns a new leaf.
Minumsa
Lee Ji Wol’s novel Monster on the Border combines the serious subject of whistle blowing
and the popular subject of school violence in an old-fashioned style found in martial arts books
to successfully create a comical effect. Two examples of the exaggerated literary expressions
are: “Your madness will surely reach the sky!” exclaimed by a boy of the narrator’s age when
he finds out that the narrator has run away in his pajamas; and “please cut open our abdomen”
instead of “cut the belly,” which is Korean slang for “whatever.”
By Choi Jaebong
www.minumsa.com
Monster on the Border
(Byeonduri Goesujeon)
Lee Ji Wol
2010, 232 pages
ISBN 978-89-3748-303-5
63
One hundred Shadows
Hwang Jeong-eun’s One Hundred Shadows can be described as a “nice novel”; the main
characters are good people, the themes are wholesome and even her sentences exude goodness.
Though I am not sure whether it is a compliment to call a literary work nice, it is without a
doubt true about One Hundred Shadows.
Minumsa
The two main characters of the novel Eungyo (“I”) and Mujae work at an electronics store in
the center of the city that is about to be demolished. They have romantic feelings for each
other but apart from holding hands, nothing really happens until the end of the novel. When
Mujae describes human beings as “loud, busy, meaningless, fast and aggressive in many
ways,” Eungyo corrects him by saying those are not attributes of humans but rather the city. In
fact, the two may be diametrically opposite people. The imminent demolition of their work
building adds a social and public dimension to their goodness. “It’s an area that will be
inevitably demolished at some point. Since there are too many factors to consider if they look
at it in terms of someone’s livelihood or hardships, they simply call it a slum,” says Mujae. His
words carry a subtle criticism of the loud, busy, fast and aggressive state of society.
By Choi Jaebong
www.minumsa.com
One hundred Shadows
(Baegui Geurimja)
Hwang Jeong-eun
2010, 196 pages
ISBN 978-89-3748-305-9
64
LTI Korea
Like a Fairytale
Minumsa
Kim Kyung-wook’s Like in a Fairytale is the story of love and daily life “after the fairytale
ending.” Here is a couple that-incredibly enough-divorced and remarried each other twice.
Baek Jangmi and Kim Myeongje meet as college freshmen in a campus singing group. At
university, they both love other people, namely Jeongu and Seoyeong, who are the leaders of
the singing group. They find jobs after graduating from university and one day run into each
other by accident. Believing that they are destined for each other, they decide to get married. If
the story up to this point seems “like a fairytale,” the author’s interest lies in what happens
afterwards. Life after the fairytale wedding is full of contradictions and misunderstandings.
Issues such as the question of Jangmi’s virginity on their wedding night and Myeongjae’s
irritating habit of not putting his dirty socks in the laundry hamper are just the tip of the
iceberg. Above all, Jangmi and Myeongje should have overcome their “fairytale-like fantasy”
about love and marriage once they began own marriage. After going through two divorces, the
two mature thanks to the pain they endure and eventually they are able to unfold a more
grown-up fairytale. The tale of the frog prince which reappears throughout the novel contains a
central message. Whereas the princess has to accept the frog in order to win herself the prince
in the fairytale, real-life women have to embrace the frog (reality) within the prince (fantasy).
This story, which is told from alternating points of view, will encourage readers to reflect on
their own love and marriage.
By Choi Jaebong
www.minumsa.com
Like a Fairytale
(Donghwacheoreom)
Kim Kyung-wook
2010, 360 pages
ISBN 978-89-3748-312-7
65
Humanoid
Minumsa
Humanoid is a novel in two volumes. It was created in an experimental way in that it was coauthored by two writers. Novelist Kim Takhwan and neurophysicist Jeong Jaeseung are the
two authors, making this book a combination of literature and science. The novel takes place
in Seoul in 2049, a time of advanced robot engineering, anatomical remodeling technology and
information and communication technology. People satisfy their desires in cyberspace and the
robot prostitution district, made possible through advanced technology; they wear clothes that
transform according to their situation and surroundings; and they enjoy brain-wave concerts at
flying cafes or go wild about robot martial arts. Crimes committed by cyborgs are common
and cyber drugs and sex addiction become social issues. The story really begins to unfold
when bodies missing brains are discovered in Seoul’s back alley. The special investigation
team in charge of converting the last memory stored in the murder victim’s brain into images
perceives the latest crime as a challenge and threat against them. The threat becomes reality
when the detectives on the special investigation team turn up dead one by one. Eun Seokbeam,
the attractive prosecutor on the team is the main character who tries to find this dangerous
opponent and in the end discovers that everything is connected to the conspiracy and the
money in the robot martial arts scene.
By Choi Jaebong
www.minumsa.com
Humanoid
(Nunmeon Sigyegong)
Kim Takhwan and Jeong Jaeseung
2010, 408 pages
ISBN 978-89-3748-321-9
66
LTI Korea
Out
Out (Aut) won the 6th Moonhak Suchop Writer’s Award in 2008 with the unanimous support
from the judges. It examines the diversity of human psychology that modern fictions tend to
miss or overlook. It is a noteworthy book in that it portrays incidents and human relationships
that take place in a rural community not from a humanistic or romantic perspective but with a
cold, impersonal gaze.
Moonhak Soochup
When a health center opens in the rural village of Wihyeon-ri, the authorities who have long
held the power in the village compete to win the director of the center to their side. While
continuously trying to coax and threaten the director, they repeatedly ally with or undermine
one another. Though the director is aware of the situation, he simply continues to carry out his
duties and chooses not to respond. Finally, the authorities collaborate to “out” the power they
cannot have.
Out looks at the other side of human relationships through a very ordinary incident that takes
place in a rural village. While depicting the everyday life, the author gives an honest portrayal
of human savageness and wickedness that try to use anything for profit.
Author Ju Youngsun made her debut as a writer in 2004 and won the 6th Moonhak Soochup
Writer’s Award in 2008 with her novel Out. She is a full-time working mother and writes with
the intention of becoming a mouthpiece for the marginalized and ignored.
By Min Hyunbae
Copyright Agent : Kim Soo-yeon
[email protected] + 82 31 955 4503
www.moonhak.co.kr
Out
(Aut)
Ju Youngsun
Moonhak Soochup Publishing Co., Ltd.
2008, 271 pages
ISBN 978-89-8392-287-8
67
21 (Twenty-one)
21 (Twenty-one) is a candid story on the love and sex of women in their twenties and thirties.
The main character Jihui is a sex columnist like Carrie in Sex and the City. Unlike Carrie,
however, Jihui finds it difficult to reveal her job to other people because she thinks that men
will want to sleep with her the minute she tells them. Perhaps it is such presumption that keeps
her from having a boyfriend. However, she secretly has feelings for H, a friend from university
who also happens to be her younger sister’s boyfriend.
Moonhak Soochup
Jihui and her friends, who are in their thirties, think that they are free about sex in their minds
but not in practice because of existing social oppression. They are both envious and displeased
about women in their twenties who act more freely. By chance, Jihui begins dating a younger
man who is handsome and capable. However, she feels uncomfortable for some reason and
thinks perhaps it stems from their generational differences. She feels more attracted to H, who
is her age and able to console her, than her young boyfriend.
21 (Twenty-one) is a cheerful story of ordinary young women and sex. If the characters of Sex
and the City are the “objects of yearning,” those of 21 are the “objects of sympathy.” Kim
Kyung-soon made her debut as a wrier with her novel Show Window (Syowindo), which won
the Moonhak Soochup Literary Award in 2004. 21 (Twenty-one) is her second novel.
By Min Hyunbae
Copyright Agent : Kim Soo-yeon
www.moonhak.co.kr
21 (Twenty-one)
Kim Kyung-soon
Moonhak Soochup Publishing Co., Ltd.
2008, 260 pages
ISBN 978-89-8392-291-5
68
LTI Korea
Sunday Sukiyaki
For Bae Su-ah, poverty was the motivation behind writing Sunday Sukiyaki (Iryoil Seukiyaki
Sikdang). The author defines poverty as “hardship experienced by an individual, pain caused
by need, and self-love fatally wounded by a sense of relative deprivation.” She says that she
has observed such poverty in a number of people, leading her to write this book
The novel contains a series of 17 long and short episodes on poverty. The main characters live
around a sukiyaki (Japanese stew) restaurant in a shabby alley: the learned idler (Ma); hollow
intellectuals (Baek Duyeon, Eum Myeongae, U Gyun, and Kim Yohwan); people who regard
money as an absolute value (Don Gyeongsuk and Pyo Hyeonjeong); and people who spend
money every day without reflection (Sewon, the hair model). They are different but all
connected by their common condition of poverty.
Moonji
Rather than develop a storyline or episodes, the writer focuses on describing the poverty
experienced by the main characters and the darkness and uncertainty caused by poverty. In this
way, the realities of destitute human life such as filthiness, dampness, meanness and
clumsiness are revealed in their true form. Through her dreamlike imagination, dry, sarcastic
style, and disturbing images, writer Bae Su-ah as secured a group of enthusiasts. Though
Sunday Sukiyaki strays a little from Bae’s earlier works, it is evident that her writing has
become even more sophisticated in style, more thorough in structure, and more effective at
conveying the theme.
By Min Hyunbae
Copyright Agent : Kim Phil-gyun
www.moonji.com
Sunday Sukiyaki
(Iryoil Seukiyaki Sikdang)
Bae Su-ah
Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
2003, 474 pages
ISBN 89-320-1398-5
69
Iron
The literary mainstream began noticing Kim Soom when she won the 1998 Munhakdongne
New Writer Award. She represented the “fathers” of our age in her first novel Idiots
(Baekchideul). The fathers in her debut work symbolize those who have been sacrificed under
the typical slogans of a developing country. She defends the fathers of Korea who returned
home after working in the deserts of the Middle East as foreign currency earners known as
“workers of industry.” In other words, she defends the lives of the marginalized and weak in
Korean society through the chronicles of the “idiots.”
Moonji
Her second novel Iron (Cheol) is an extension of Idiots. It is a story of shipyard laborers.
Through the lives of the laborers at the shipyard, i.e. the outpost of national industrial
development, Kim depicts a scene of labor where laborers are mobilized and exploited by the
“state/capital.” The completion of a gigantic ship made of iron may signify the development of
state industry, but the laborers are discarded like useless rusty iron once the job is done. Using
grotesque images and phantasmal elements, this novel explores the darker side of capitalism
by examining the concept of labor in modern society as a tool, capital as the basis of labor, the
issue of labor and capital, and the issue of labor and class. This book has been selected as one
of the finalists for Dongin Literary Award for “deconstructing the traditional grammar of the
labor novel.”
By Lee Seungwon
www.moonji.com
Iron
(Cheol)
Kim Soom
2008, 278 pages
ISBN 978-89-320-1906-2
70
LTI Korea
All the Beautiful Children
Although Korea boasts a world-class zeal in youth education, educational novels on healthy
youth development are rare. Choe Sihan’s All the Beautiful Children, which consists of five
organically connected stories, is an outstanding work that has all the merits of an educational
novel. It is also a steady seller that has sold 50,000 copies since its first printing in 1995. “The
Time to Learn Heosaengjeon,” one of the stories in the collection, is in fact included in the
high school literature textbook.
Moonji
All the Beautiful Children closely investigates the experience of anguished, confused Korean
youths in their poor educational environment. This novel deals with love, friendship,
loneliness and reflections on life of youths. As the author suggests, “youth who strive for
growth find themselves in contradiction. Though they are products of their environment, they
try to overcome it. To them, their environment is both their mother and their enemy. Their
adolescent malaise discloses the specific form of contradiction and inner dreams. Growth
begins with reflection on and search for such drifting and dreams.” This novel asks what it
means to truly “grow up” to be an adult within the current educational environment in Korea
where schools focus on rote learning and memorization in order to prepare students for
university entrance examinations. By observing the main characters Seonjae and Yunjae’s life
at school, the readers will be able to reflect on the meaning of “beautiful adolescent malaise
and solitude.”
By Lee Seungwon
www.moonji.com
All the Beautiful Children
(Modu Areumdaun Aideul)
Choe Sihan
1996, 206 pages
ISBN 89-320-0846-9
71
My Beautiful Sinners
Moonji
Kim Sum’s novel My Beautiful Sinners is a coming-of-age story about a seven-year-old girl
Donghwa who is brought to her grandmother’s house in the countryside. Her mother has left
home with a lover and her father who promised to take her back to their home after a hundred
days does not come back. Left alone with her grandmother, Donghwa grows into a young girl
nurtured by loneliness and sadness. This book portrays both the growing pains of Donghwa
and the lives of the adults around her through her eyes. Donghwa’s grandfather who lies
paralyzed in the back room after a stroke; her grandmother who tells Donghwa that she looks
like her runaway mother; Granny from Okcheon, who is a corner shop keeper and believes that
she was an empress in her previous life; Aunty Inja who has had a gold tooth done with the
compensation she received from her son’s death in a car accident; the mill granny whose arm
was severed in a milling machine accident; Uncle Jangdae who suffers from epilepsy but farms
tobacco instead of his brother; 18-year-old Jeonghui who is pregnant; and the factory workers
at the nickel bowl factory who come from outside the village and live in a reconstructed barn.
To Donghwa, these are the “sinners” who hurt their loved ones as well as themselves.
However, only when she leaves the village with her father, who finally comes for her nine
years later, does she realize that she misses these “sad yet beautiful sinners.”
By Choi Jaebong
www.moonji.com
My Beautiful Sinners
(Naui Areumdaun Joeindeul)
Kim Sum
2009, 238 pages
ISBN 978-89-320-1984-0
72
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Leave Now, the Wind Is Blowing!
Moonji
Han Gang’s novel Leave Now, the Wind Is Blowing! is a “struggle for interpretation” between
two people surrounding the death of a woman. The aspiring artist Seo Inju dies under
suspicious circumstances at the Misiryeong mountain pass at dawn. The art critic Gang
Seogwon who was in love with her concludes that she committed suicide and attempts to
publish a book that mythologizes Inju’s life and art. However, Inju’s other friend Yi Jeonghui,
who knew Inju’s passion for life, tries to find the “truth” behind Inju’s death. With Jeonghui as
the narrator, the novel begins when Jeonghui and Seogwon meet for the first time and
alternates between Jeonghui’s memories of Inju and some new stories about her that they learn
from other people. In the process, they discover that Inju’s mother, an alcoholic who suffered
from depression, also took her own life at the Misiryeong mountain pass 40 years ago.
Seogwon and Jeonghui’s struggle for interpretation becomes more and more intense until
Seogwon breaks into Jeonghui’s house, attacks her and sets the house on fire to destroy Inju’s
remaining paintings and other possessions. The last scene, in which Jeonghui is crawling out
of the house engulfed by fire as she moans “I want to live, I want to live,” shows the author’s
passionate struggle for life, which is also the main theme of the novel.
By Choi Jaebong
www.moonji.com
Leave Now, the Wind Is Blowing!
(Barami Bunda, Gara)
Han Gang
2010, 390 pages
ISBN 978-89-320-2000-6
73
A Man Who Has Passed through Thirty
Doors
Moonji
Ha Changsoo’s novel A Man Who Has Passed through Thirty Doors is a compilation of ten
short stories that were published between 1996 and 2006. In addition to having been written
over the course of a decade, the stories also cover a wide scope of themes and subject matters.
Despite their diversity, however, they have certain serious topics in common, including
language and literature, humans and God, and existence and transcendence. The title story
portrays a process in which a former university lecturer who has lost his voice overcomes his
desperate circumstances and regains his will to live. The issue of language which was
presented as a “voice” in this story is explored more in depth in “The World is a Novel”
(Cheonji Soseolya:
) and “A Thousand-Year Rhapsody” (Cheonnyeonbu:
). “The World is a Novel” narrates the origins and downfall of the novel in a style
mimicking ancient literature, and “A Thousand-Year Rhapsody” portrays a world where
language does not fulfill its innate function of communication. In “The Novelist Who Has
Become a Saint” (Seongjaga Doen Soseolga), Ha replaces the life of Jesus with that of a
storyteller and explores the relationship between novels and religious scriptures and the
language of art and religion. At one point, the author observes, “Jesus, Buddha, Socrates and
Confucius were all excellent interpreters and powerful orators of life, and the fact that they
were above all practitioners of life shows that they were models for novelists.” This remark
helps us understand the author’s literary approach to religion.
By Choi Jaebong
www.moonji.com
A Man Who Has Passed through Thirty Doors
(Seoreun Gaeui Muneul Jinaon Saram)
Ha Changsoo
Moonji Publishing, Co., Ltd.
2010, 318 pages
ISBN 978-89-320-2045-7
74
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Table for One
Moonji
Table for One is the first collection of short stories by Yun Ko Eun who wrote Zero Gravity
Syndrome (Mujungnyeok Jeunghugun), which portrays the chaos that ensues when the moon
splits into two, three, and then four and continues to increase in number. Though her stories
begin with realistic premises, her unique imagination makes the stories leap into fantasy. The
title story is about an institute that teaches people how to walk into a restaurant, order food and
dine alone without worrying about what others may think. In “Invader Graphic,” a young
writer, who has received a prize at the annual Spring Literary Contest, is treated simply as an
unemployed good-for-nothing at home. In order to avoid his family, he writes on the sofa right
outside a department store bathroom. In “Bak Hyeonmong Dream Interpretation Center,”
people can request the main character to dream their dreams in their stead, while the main
character of “Sweet Holiday” embarks on a journey without an end, intent on becoming an
intermediate host to eliminate all fleas. The couple in “Road Kill” gets trapped in a deserted
motel where all types of vending machines operate like a conveyor belt. Their life becomes
increasingly more primitive until they finally become wild animals and get run over by a truck
on the road. Finally, “Iceland” deals with those who travel vicariously through books and the
internet instead of going on trips themselves. The author’s imagination which sometimes
comforts characters and sometimes pushes them toward catastrophe has produced an
impressive read.
By Choi Jaebong
www.moonji.com
Table for One
(Irinyong Siktak)
Yun Ko Eun
2010, 397 pages
ISBN 978-89-3202-049-5
75
Nana at Dawn
Park Hyoung Su’s novel Nana at Dawn is a story about a group of prostitutes in Bangkok,
Thailand and the people in their lives. Nana is the name of the station in the middle of Soi 16,
the street where the prostitutes dwell. The story begins as Leo, a 40-year-old Korean man,
arrives in Bangkok’s red-light district Sukhumvit. It then travels back 15 years to the first time
Leo first visited Bangkok.
Moonji
It is 1994 and Leo is on his way to Africa with the 3,000 dollars he has managed to save by
working at a gas station and doing other small jobs. However, he meets a beautiful prostitute
named Ploy at an outdoor restaurant in Sukumvit, where he stops by on Christmas Eve during
his layover, and ends up staying in Bangkok for six months. During his stay in Bangkok, Leo
somehow acquires an ability to see the former lives of people as well as his own, and he
discovers that Leo and Ploy had been in love and had even been married in their former lives.
The daily lives of the prostitutes and the residents of Sukumvit are depicted realistically,
humorously and sometimes in a dreamlike way through the eyes of Leo, an outsider. After his
first visit, Leo goes back to Bangkok three times over the next 15 years and observes vividly
the strenuous efforts by the people of Sukhumvit to look for a way out of their declining
fortune.
By Choi Jaebong
www.moonji.com
Nana at Dawn
(Saebyeogui Nana)
Park Hyoung Su
2010, 406 pages
ISBN 978-89-3202-058-7
76
LTI Korea
A Muslim Butcher
Moonji
Son Hong-gyu’s novel A Muslim Butcher is set in a neighborhood near the mosque in Itaewon,
Seoul. The stories of the “slightly crazy” people in this rundown village that revolve around
the Turkish butcher Hassan and the narrator, a Korean orphan he adopted, are delivered in the
writer’s unique narrative style, colloquial and glib. Hassan started to prepare and sell porkwhich is prohibited for Muslims-after he learned that he had unknowingly eaten human flesh
while he was fighting in the Korean War. Another character named Yamos is also tormented
by a traumatic past: during the Greek Civil War, he mistook his cousin’s family for the enemy
and accidentally killed them. His guilt drove him to fight in the Korean War and kept him from
returning to Greece after the war. Then there is the bald man who has lost all his memories of
being a soldier in the war. With the stories of these men, A Muslim Butcher could be seen as a
novel about the Korean War. But the narrator’s bullet wound also calls to mind faint memories
of the May 18 Democratization Movement of 1980 and the stories of other characters like
Anna who has run away from her abusive husband add complex layers to the book. The novel
includes statements like “my step-father’s blood flows through my veins” and “I have decided
to adopt this world,” which open up the novel to the possibility of an acquired sense of
solidarity based on pain and hurt rather than innate ties like blood or nationality.
By Choi Jaebong
www.moonji.com
A Muslim Butcher
(Iseullam Jeongyukjeom)
Son Hong-gyu
2010, 240 pages
ISBN 978-89-3202-060-0
77
Baron Quirval s Castle
Baron Quirval s Castle is the first collection of short stories by the budding writer Choi Jaehoon. With daring experimental ideas and the penchant for raising provocative questions, it
marks a solid beginning for his career. The eight short stories include one featuring
Frankenstein, a human being built by stitching together pieces of corpses. Choi shows his
talent for creating new stories out of the popular stories and anecdotes that he has collected.
The title story “Baron Quirval’s Castle” is the story of Baron Quirval, a cannibalistic aristocrat
who looks like Count Dracula.
Moonji
Choe has put together twelve pieces in different media that have reproduced the story: the 17th
century tale involving Baron Quirval; the story of the baron told by an old lady in France to
her grandchildren at the end of the 19th century; an American novel in the 1930s; a movie in
the 1950s; excerpts from a course titled “Women in Films” at a Korean university in the
1990s; an interview with a Japanese film director who turned the story into a film in 2004; and
a film review published on an internet portal site in 2006. These pieces, which are not arranged
chronologically, show how a story can be reconceived and disseminated over time. The
author’s subversive imagination and unique style of cultural engineering continue to shine in
“Reflections on Stereotypes of Witches-Episodes in World History 1” which deals with a
witch hunt in medieval Europe and “An Excuse for the Monster” which reinterprets Mary
Shelley’s horror fiction Frankenstein.
By Choi Jaebong
www.moonji.com
Baron Quirval s Castle
(Kwireubal Namjagui Seong)
Choi Jae-hoon
2010, 304 pages
ISBN 978-89-3202-052-5
78
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The Queen of Red Bricks
About the Author
The author was born in 1964 in Gyeonggi-do(province). His novel Frank and Me (Peuraengkeuwa Na) was
nominated for the Munhakdongne New Writers Award. His novel The Queen of Red Bricks attracted a lot
of attention from critics and readers, when it was awarded the 10th Munhakdongne Writers Award in 2004.
The founding member of the movie production company Shincine Communications Co., Ltd., he has also
written the screenplays for Gun and Gun (Chongjabi) and Chinese Restaurant Peking
(Bukgyeongbanjeom) and is currently preparing to direct a film.
Sample Translation
Volume I of the book tells the life story of a hag who has been regarded with contempt all her life because
of her ugly appearance. This old lady owns a restaurant and lives to avenge herself. The book also tells the
story of Geumbok who leaves her hometown to see the world and finds some luck at the wharf. The old
hag, one of the ugliest women in the world, starts a restaurant to take revenge upon the cruel world and
becomes rich, but before she gets to spend even a penny of earnings she is murdered by gangsters.
Meanwhile, voluptuous Geumbok whohas the power to allure men sees a whale for the first time and from
that point on possesses a great desire for “greatness” like that of the whale.
Munhakdongne
Volume II continues the story of Geumbok. After overcoming many tribulations she settles in the city of
Pyeongdae and displays supernatural and remarkable abilities as a business woman. However, her desire
for “greatness” consumes her and volume II also depicts the process of her destruction. Geumbok s
colorful life story, beginning as a lonely small-town girl and later becoming the richest woman in
Pyeongdae, comes to an end when somebody sets her company building on fire.
The last volume of the novel tells the story of Chunhui, Geumbok s daughter. Accused and convicted as
the incendiary of Pyeongdae s greatest fire that killed eight hundred people, Chunhui is released from
prison after serving time. She returns to the ruins of the forgotten brickfactory and fights for her survival, as
she produces an enormous amount of red bricks.
Additional Information
Winner of the 10th Munhakdongne Fiction Award
Arts Council Korea s 2005 Outstanding Book Award
Currently in the process of being adapted into a television drama
It s like a tornado. After getting caught up in this web of lies and wildly flipping through each page, you
find yourself at the end moaning in pain rather than finding delight.
- Hankook Daily
There is not a boring moment in this book!
- Kyunghyang Newspaper
Absurd tales that are not implausible yet difficult to believe fill pageafter page. Chun is a gifted story-teller.
- Joongang Daily
Copyright Agent : Kim Mijeong
www.munhak.com
The Queen of Red Bricks
(Gorae)
Cheon Myeong-kwan
Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
Corp, 2004, 456 pages
ISBN 89-8281-927-4 03810
79
The Clock Tower
The author Jeon Ari, who turned 22 this year, is known as the “literary genius of the 21st
century.” She began writing fairy tales in elementary school and won most of the youth literary
prizes in Korea during her secondary school years. Jeon is a legendary figure among the youth
who aspire to become writers.
Munhakdongne
The Clock Tower (Sigyetap) is the first novel Jeon has published as an adult. It is the story of
an eleven-year-old girl who is willing to steal to take possession of what she wants. She can
only be satisfied when she has acquired the object of her desire by stealing it from her
neighbors. Her father loses his job and drinks all the time while her mother, who cannot stand
him, runs away. Though the girl waits for her mother in front of the clock tower in the station
plaza, the mother does not return. Realizing that there are things she cannot possess no matter
how much she desires them, the girl learns to give up and begins to grow up.
This book does not indiscriminately offer comfort or encouragement to those who have been
hurt. The author simply observes the girl’s thoughts and daily life as they are, observations
which, in fact, prove to be a little consoling and moving for the readers. Along with The Clock
Tower, Jeon Ari has also published Mischief (Jeulgeoun Jangnan), a collection of her works
that have received literary prizes.
By Min Hyunbae
www.munhak.com
The Clock Tower
(Sigyetap)
Jeon Ari
2008, 176 pages
ISBN 978-89-546-0582-3
80
LTI Korea
Moon Eclipse
Moon Eclipse (Dareul Meokda), the winner of the 13th Munhakdongne Literary Award, is a
story about the fatal love that takes place under the reigns of King Yeongjo and King Jeongjo,
a time of strict rules and rigid social hierarchy. It boldly portrays people who live and die by
love and who, blinded by forbidden love, give themselves up to the perilous impulse of death.
Nine heartbreaking love stories include those about the forbidden love between brother and
sister, a man who makes himself limp because he loves a crippled girl, and a girl who drowns
after waiting for someone to call her name. The stories are intertwined, each love failing or
meeting a tragic end because of small misunderstandings. Sad love is portrayed delicately and
the outstanding descriptions of objects, animals, the climate and customs of the era make their
love feel palpable to the reader.
Munhakdongne
Moon Eclipse was selected as the 2007 Outstanding Literary Book by the Arts Council Korea.
By Min Hyunbae
www.munhak.com
Moon Eclipse
(Dareul Meokda)
Kim Jin-kyu
2007, 272 pages
ISBN 978-89-546-0475-8
81
The Moonflower and the Wolf
In his first collection of short stories Ghost (Yuryeong, 2004), Han Dong-rim explores the
question of life and death, entwined as one. He pursues the true meaning of life that can only
be recovered by someone who, having wandered the stage of life as a stranger, ultimately finds
himself driven to the precipice of ruin and despair. Han's works begin by affirming the fate of
Sisyphus. Though life may repeat itself in chaos without any changes, to affirm it is to assert
the will to life.
Munhakdongne
The Moonflower and the Wolf (Dalkkotgwa Neukdae) is Han's first long novel since his debut
as a writer 13 years ago. One day, the protagonist-narrator watches Animal Kingdom on
television. On this program, he witnesses the fate of herbivores that surrender to the violence
of carnivores. Following the realization that such violence does not exist only in the animal
world, he is taken back to his childhood. For the protagonist, his hometown Udeokdo is not a
place that triggers fond memories but rather a place full of fear where loathsome gazes and
frightening screams were borne and cultivated. What then does a hometown that has lost its
sacredness mean to modern people? Moreover, what is the substance of violence that stirs up
evil impulses always accompanied by the angry face of a demon in the protagonist who is
ordinarily as gentle as an herbivore? The answer is up to the reader.
By Lee Seungwon
www.munhak.com
The Moonflower and the Wolf
(Dalkkotgwa Neukdae)
Han Dong-rim
2008, 407 pages
ISBN 978-89-546-0676-9
82
LTI Korea
Yi Jin 1 and 2
Shin Kyung-sook’s warm, profound gaze has long captured the inner lives of modern people.
Her richly detailed and sensitive prose has fascinated many readers. Yi Jin, her first new book
since publishing Violet six years ago, reveals a completely different side of the author: it is a
historical novel. To research the story, Shin wandered the streets of Paris and struggled with
the modern history of the Joseon Dynasty from a hundred years ago, searching for traces of Yi
Jin, a real life figure who was a dancer with the Royal Court, much favored by Empress
Myeongseong, and a lover to Colin, the first French diplomatic minister to Joseon.
Munhakdongne
Yi Jin’s story begins in a small aristocratic village in late nineteenth-century Joseon. The story
moves to the Royal Court, the French legation, and then to Paris before ending at the palace
where the empress of Joseon is murdered. Delicately weaving history and fiction, the book
follows both Yi Jin’s tragic life and Joseon’s tragic history, with Yi Jin as an intermediary.
Through Yi Jin’s short, unfortunate life, Shin vividly captures Joseon’s failed attempt at
modernity at the end of the nineteenth century, when the premodern and the modern clashed
violently.
By Lee Seungwon
www.munhak.com
Yi Jin 1 and 2
Shin Kyung-sook
2007, 360 pages
ISBN 978-89-546-0323-2
83
The Most Beautiful Days of My Life
Munhakdongne
Gong Seon-ok’s The Most Beautiful Days of My Life takes place in 1980 when a military
massacre of civilians took place in the southern city of Gwangju. Shortly after high school
students Haegeum and her friends have a group blind date with boys their age, Haegeum’s
friend Gyeongae is shot dead by soldiers. After the distressing experience of being covered in
Gyeongae’s blood, Sugyeong suffers extreme psychological trauma and pain and finally
commits suicide. Haegeum’s boyfriend who goes on to university is arrested after joining the
student movement and forced into the army. Forced to work as a spy against the students of the
movement, he also kills himself. Another university student, Jeongsin disguises himself as a
laborer, works at a factory as part of the labor movement and undergoes various difficulties.
Instead of attending university, Haegeum becomes a laborer and witnesses a factory strike.
Hence, the spring of their lives is also the winter of the era. However, despite the fact that the
story takes place in such dark and painful times, the style is surprisingly bright and even
cheerful. Though it is a story of hardship in which the suffering of the community and
individual growing pains overlap, the main characters are youthful and bright like flowers in
full bloom, and their warm, affectionate and compassionate nature contributes to the
atmosphere of the story.
By Choi Jaebong
www.munhak.com
The Most Beautiful Days of My Life
(Naega Gajang Yeppeosseul Ttae)
Gong Seon-ok
Munhakdongnae Publishing Corp.
2009, 300 pages
ISBN 978-89-546-0811-4
84
LTI Korea
The Queen of Weight Loss
Fourteen fat women including an aerobics instructor, actress, book designer, nurse, college
student, and office worker who weigh between 70kg and 142kg star in a reality show titled
“The Queen of Weight Loss,” in which the person who has lost the most weight in the
healthiest way is crowned the winner. Former chef Jeong Yeondu also stars in the show. Since
her boyfriend of three years dumped her, Yeondu has been trying desperately to satiate the
hunger that seems to arise from deep within and now weighs 0.1 ton, a leap from her previous
85kg. Baek’s fiction The Queen of Weight Loss exposes the distorted desires of contemporary
society through a weight loss survival program.
Munhakdongne
Due to the cruel nature of the show, one can only win the competition by surpassing others and
thus the show transforms into a “jungle of survival” full of conspiracy, betrayal, jealousy and
revenge. Yeondu finally becomes the queen by disclosing that her rival and winning contestant
Choe Danbi is transgendered, a victory that is undoubtedly won at the cost of human values. In
the last chapter, which deals with what happens after Yeondu’s win following many twists and
turns, the “queen” is shown to be suffering from anorexia nervosa and a state of near senility.
This end result represents the negative side effects of cutthroat competition and the excessive
weight loss frenzy.
By Choi Jaebong
www.munhak.com
The Queen of Weight Loss
(Daieoteuui Yeowang)
Baek Young-ok
2009, 416 pages
ISBN 978-89-546-0843-5
85
280 Days of Mrs. Gong of Namchon
Munhakdongne
Gong lives in Namchon village in Hanyang (old Seoul). Lately he has been deeply troubled by
a serious problem, namely his wife’s pregnancy so many years into their marriage. One would
imagine that he would be ecstatic about expecting his first child at 45, an age when others are
becoming grandfathers. However, the village doctor had told Gong long ago that he “cannot
produce a child.” Then whose child is Mrs. Gong carrying? “As her belly grew, his grief also
deepened.” Set in the Joseon era, Kim Jin-kyu’s novel 280 Days of Mrs. Gong of Namchon is a
story about the henpecked Gong’s investigation of the mysterious pregnancy of his wife who is
“a span taller and half a stone heavier” than him. Examining one man at a time, he narrows the
suspect pool through deduction, stakeout, interrogation and crime scene examination. His
suspects include: Doctor Chae Manju; local government official chambong Bak Gigon; tofu
seller Gang Jasu; servant Doni; Im Suljeung, the attendant of a high-ranking official; ramie
fabric seller Hwang Yonggap; his wife’s third cousin Choe Myeonggu; and musician Baek
Dalchi. This novel counters the belief that historical novels are serious and heroic by offering a
fun read with a cheerful and comic atmosphere on a unique topic.
By Choi Jaebong
www.munhak.com
280 Days of Mrs. Gong of Namchon
(Namchon GongsaengwonMananimui 280 Il)
Kim Jin-kyu
2009, 248 pages
ISBN 978-89-546-0884-8
86
LTI Korea
The End of the World, Girlfriend
Munhakdongne
The End of the World, Girlfriend is a collection of short stories by Kim Yeon-su, who is
regarded as the leader of the new generation of novelists. Interestingly, the author, despite his
debut as a postmodernist writer and background in the humanities, which drove him to express
a deep skepticism in truth and objectivity, is now inquiring into the topic of communication in
his tenth book. Kim turns to death in order to understand his topic; most of the main characters
are suffering from the death of lovers or family members. The way they can overcome such
sadness and pain is to tell someone their stories. In “I Called out Kay-Kay’s Name,” an
American woman and a Korean woman who have respectively lost a lover and a young son
continue to clash until they share their stories and learn about each other’s loss. It is only then
that they are able to understand and console each other. In “Whoever You Are, No Matter
How Lonely,” “The End of the World, Girlfriend” and “A Comedian Who Went to the Moon,”
talking about the passing of loved ones brings about the positive effects of mutual
understanding and solace. The author seems to suggest that the loss and pain of losing
someone to death can be healed through dialogue.
By Choi Jaebong
www.munhak.com
The End of the World, Girlfriend
(Segyeui Kkeut Yeoja Chingu)
Kim Yeon-su
2009, 320 pages
ISBN 978-89-546-0882-4
87
The Pied Piper
Munhakdongne
Kim Kihong’s novel The Pied Piper begins with the everyday life of the narrator “I,” a
university freshman who enjoys reading books at the library. He becomes close to Suyeon
whom he meets at the library. Suyeon suddenly disappears and then reappears to tell him that
six people died in the fire at the party she had attended. She also tells him that she had passed
out and woke up, hearing the sound of a pipe in a strange basement. She believes that she must
find the man with the pipe in order to explain the strange things happening around her. As the
narrator leaves to find the source of the pipe for the woman he loves, the novel takes a turn
from a melodrama of young love to international mystery and intrigue. When he goes to
Europe in search of the “pied piper,” he witnesses the tube bombing in London and learns that
there is a conspiracy involving terrorist activities taking place all over the world such as India,
the US and Spain. Though the identity of the pied piper does not become clear even at the end
of the novel, the last sentence portrays the destiny of youth who have to seek change and
newness: “We go step by step toward those who are still far away. But toward a new world we
will inevitably meet one day.”
By Choi Jaebong
www.munhak.com
The Pied Piper
(Piri Buneun Sanai)
Kim Kihong
2009, 344 pages
ISBN 978-89-546-0978-4
88
LTI Korea
Cha Sangmun the Genius Rabbit
Munhakdongne
Kim Nam-il’s novel Cha Sangmun the Genius Rabbit is a biography of the genius
mathematician Cha Sangmun. After quitting his job as a professor from UC Berkeley and
Seoul National University, Cha actively pursues the movement that asserts the rights of all
living things in rejection of anthropocentrism and also sends mail bombs using the same
method as the Unabomber’s. Through the interesting character of a human rabbit, the novel reinterprets Korea’s twisted modern history. This work is particularly noteworthy in that it
widens its scope to include issues of human civilization, ecology and environment, beyond just
nation and human species. It stands out as a novel with an unfamiliar and unique voice. It
presents a Korean version of “magical realism” as well as the talkativeness and loquacity
found in Chinese novels. However, its deep-rooted skepticism on human behavior and
existence itself resemble “eco-fascism,” which argues that the extinction of human species is
good for the earth’s ecosystem. Cha Sangmun pleads, “Please stop thumping on the ground.
You are scaring the earth! Please!” before he locks himself in an underground tunnel and kills
himself. His death makes this novel appear even more similar to eco-fascism. In fact, the
writer confesses that he has fallen prey to nihilism and fundamentalism; as if to reflect this
point, the novel fails to provide a possible alternative that can be applied in reality, a
shortcoming that is one downside of this interesting novel.
By Choi Jaebong
www.munhak.com
Cha Sangmun the Genius Rabbit
(Cheonjae Tokki Cha Sangmun)
Kim Nam-il
2010, 368 pages
ISBN 978-89-546-0958-6
89
Heavy Snow Warning
Yun Dae-nyeong’s collection of short stories Heavy Snow Warning takes a look at various
types of couples, such as the married man with a single woman (or a divorcee); or the married
woman with a single man. Using these couples, the author explores and presents a diversity of
relationships, almost like a report on relationships. Though these relationships are usually
called “extramarital affairs,” the author urges us not to dismiss them simply as soap opera but
to focus instead on their delicate and sometimes heartbreaking stories. This is because though
a relationship is established between me and another person, it is ultimately my problem and a
true reflection of my own self.
Munhakdongne
If the “return to the natural state,” which describes the theme of Yun’s early novels, was a kind
of romantic transcendence, recent novels by the author who is on the verge of turning fifty
remain closer to everyday life, reality and human beings. The shift in his preference from
foreign beers consumed at cafés and his apartment to soju at blood sausage stew shops or street
stalls can be said to symbolize such change. Amid such a transition, Yun explores subtle and
complex relationships between people. Despite these changes, his trademark poetic language
continues to fill this book.
By Choi Jaebong
www.munhak.com
Heavy Snow Warning
(Daeseol Juuibo)
Yun Dae-nyeong
2010, 330 pages
ISBN 978-89-546-1063-6
90
LTI Korea
The Aging Family
Munhakdongne
The Aging Family is the second novel by Cheon Myeong-kwan whose first novel The Queen of
Red Bricks (Gorae) was like the exhibition of “compulsive storytelling.” There are five main
characters in this novel: a 70-year-old mother, a 50-year-old first son, a 48-year-old second
son, a 45-year-old daughter and the daughter’s teenage daughter. With an average age of 49,
this strange family unfolds unique stories of their own as they rush about in life. The family’s
uniqueness is evident from the first scene where the two sons throw plates of food at each
other and get into a fistfight. The second son who is the narrator has been jobless for the past
10 years since his debut film was both a commercial and artistic flop. When he returns home to
his old mother after some 20 years, he finds the matchbox apartment occupied by his
unemployed older brother, an ex-gang member with five criminal convictions; his younger
sister, a manager of a coffee shop, who got her second divorce following an affair; and her outof-control daughter. Their family is truly “an assortment of losers in life, who belong to the
lowest rung of the minor league ladder.” But the 70-year-old mother, who is a door-to-door
cosmetics saleswoman, prepares meat dishes for her children almost every day, as if she was
convinced that her children have all failed because they were not fed properly. Ultimately, the
family members who seem full of problems and nothing but hatred for each other, in fact, help
one another out and band together at moments when they matter, thus proving the great power
of family.
By Choi Jaebong
www.munhak.com
The Aging Family
(Goryeonghwa Gajok)
Cheon Myeong-kwan
2010, 292 pages
ISBN 978-89-546-1055-1
91
Somewhere There s a Phone Ringing
for Me
Munhakdongne
Somewhere There s a Phone Ringing for Me is the most recent novel by Shin Kyung-sook, the
author of Korea’s No. 1 bestseller Please Look After Mom. The main characters are Yuni and
Miru and their respective hometown friends Dani and Myeongseo. When Miru and
Myeongseo audit Professor Yun’s lecture at Arts College, they become friends with Yuni who
is taking the course and together they spent the time of their youth. The backdrop of their
youth is strongly reminiscent of the 1980s: daily student demonstrations at Myeongdong
Cathedral, City Hall and downtown Seoul; tear gas attacks by the military police; and
everyday objects such as typewriters and public phone booths instead of computers and cell
phones. Miru’s sister, Mirae discovers that her boyfriend, who is a core figure of the student
movement wanted by the government, has gone missing. When she finally learns that he has
died a mysterious death, she lights herself on fire and jumps from the top of a building.
Shocked by her sister’s tragic death, Miru dies alone in an empty house due to anorexia. Dani
also gets killed by accidental discharge during his military service. The novel portrays how
Yuni and Myeongseo, who were estranged after the successive deaths of their close ones, get
in touch again after eight years, embrace each other’s wounds and become close again.
By Choi Jaebong
www.munhak.com
Somewhere There s a Phone Ringing for Me
(Eodiseonnga Nareul Channeun Jeonhwaberi Ulligo)
Shin Kyung-sook
2010, 380 pages
ISBN 978-89-5461-127-5
92
LTI Korea
The Star of Africa
Munhakdongne
Jung Mi Kyung’s novel The Star of Africa begins by depicting the hot desert of northern
Africa. A man holding a birdcage with a canary in it approaches the main character Seung who
is Korean and asks, “Isn’t my bird really pretty?” followed by another question: “Should I let it
go if I love it?” This question conveys the theme of the novel. Seung came to Morocco with
his sixteen-year-old daughter Bora in search of a childhood friend who defrauded him and ran
away with his wife. While working as a tour guide and looking for his friend, Seung finds a
mouse-shaped relic and leaves it with the local shop owner Mustafa who sells it to Laurent, a
French designer who is always in pursuit of new, unique beauty and therefore mesmerized by
Seung’s discovery. However, Laurent is soon killed by those who also covet the relic. In this
process, the young, new love between Mustafa’s son Baba and Seung’s daughter Bora also
suffers and finally dies. The mouse-shaped relic that pushes the people involved to death and
destruction symbolizes the fatal attraction of beauty. Laurent’s perverted idea that it is not
beauty that creates desire but the other way around presents the limits of an esthetic attitude
that ultimately leads to death.
By Choi Jaebong
www.munhak.com
The Star of Africa
(Apeurikaui Byeol)
Jung Mi Kyung
2010, 288 pages
ISBN 978-89-5461-155-8
93
The Plotters
Munhakdongne
Kim Un-su’s novel The Plotters is set in a dark underworld called “Puju” and based on a
conspiracy theory, according to which there was a political background to important
assassinations in modern Korean history following the end of Japanese colonial rule. The title
“The Plotters” designates those who plan and order such assassinations. This novel does not
reveal who was behind well-known assassinations in the past or provide new evidence of such
cases. It is a noir fiction where killer Raesaeng who grew up as an orphan launches his own
one-man war against the new power that seeks to control the underworld. When the
businessman Hanja who has studied abroad modernizes contract killing and turns it into a
business, he poses a threat to the contract killing group Raesaeng belongs to. Raesaeng
prepares for a once in a lifetime showdown with Hanja who kills people around him one by
one and is slowly tightening his grip on him. In the process, Raesaeng joins forces with a
young woman named Mito who has also declared war on the “world of plotting” itself. Mito
believes that “the world is like this because we are too tame”; she blames “people who have
given up, thinking that the world won’t change no matter what we do.” The author’s solid,
elegant sentences and a thrilling plot full of conspiracy, revenge, assassination and escape
make it a pleasant read.
By Choi Jaebong
www.munhak.com
The Plotters
(Seolgyejadeul)
Kim Un-su
2010, 424 pages
ISBN 978-89-5461-212-8
94
LTI Korea
The Red Fruits in My Garden
Munhakdongne
Kwon Yeo-sun’s The Red Fruits in My Garden is a collection of seven short stories. Alcohol
plays an important role in three of the stories. In the title story, two women who are friends
from college drink wine at a restaurant that specializes in dumplings and look back on their
college days from more than ten years ago: the gatherings organized by upperclassmen for
freshmen where they discussed books over drinks and the many flings and incidents among the
students that happened as a result. Past experiences are not fully completed until after the
fermentation of alcohol and memories, which happens with the passage of time. The story
“Believing in Love” also takes place mostly in a bar. This short story has a complex structure,
in which there is a story within the story, and at the core lie unrequited love, break-ups and
ways to get over them. In another story “Putting down an Empty Glass,” the main character
who is a scenario writer drinks constantly with a film producer friend while they work together
on a film. The producer manipulates the situation skillfully and puts her through the pain of
heartbreak in order to make her scenario feel more real. In this story, the empty glass he puts
down in front of the main character symbolizes the film producer’s intention and scheme to
manipulate her feelings.
By Choi Jaebong
www.munhak.com
The Red Fruits in My Garden
(Nae Jeongwonui Bulgeun Yeolmae)
Kwon Yeo-sun
2010, 276 pages
ISBN 978-89-5461-273-9
95
Pluto s Roof
Pluto (Myeongwangseong in Korean) is the dwarf planet that was formerly considered the
solar system’s ninth planet. In Han Su-yeong’s novel Pluto s Roof, it’s the name of the
neighborhood (Myeongwang 3-dong) where the novel is set. Facing demolition and
redevelopment, Myeongwang 3-dong is like any other run-down neighborhood on the outskirts
of a small city in Korea: “The step hillside of Myeongwang 3-dong teemed with narrow alleys
crowded with houses-39 of them with roofs still intact and the other 200 with roofs as fragile
as eggshells.” The main character Minsu is intimately familiar with all these alleys and houses.
His mother came from the Philippines to marry his Korean father but divorced him when she
could no longer endure his verbal abuse. Now she works at a sock factory and Minsu, who
stays at home alone, is to hop from rooftop to rooftop and observe the neighbors.
Munhakdongne
There is a history behind Minsu’s habit of climbing rooftops. Years ago, his maternal
grandfather in the Philippines had climbed to a roof in protest. When the girl he was in love
with refused to marry him, he climbed to the roof of her house and stayed there for a week
through the monsoon storm, until she finally accepted his proposal. Moreover, the
neighborhood pharmacist’s twin brother who has fallen for Minsu’s mother also courts her
from the rooftop and wins her heart. On the day of their wedding, Minsu says goodbye to
Myeongwangseong, which is about to be demolished.
By Choi Jaebong
www.munhak.com
Pluto s Roof
(Peullutoui Jibung)
Han Su-yeong
2010, 268 pages
ISBN 978-89-5461-131-2
96
LTI Korea
My Wife Got Married
My Wife Got Married (Anaega Gyeolhonhaetta) is an interesting novel which combines soccer
with the story of a wife who wants a double marriage and the husband who cannot but accept
it. This provocative story about bigamy unfolds honestly and daringly. Soccer and marriage
create an exquisite harmony, capturing the readers’ attention. The female character Ina, a
soccer fan, is the lover of the first-person narrator. Though she finally gives in to his insistent
persuasion and agrees to marry him, he promises to let her go without regret if either of them
falls in love with someone else. They are happy in their married life until one day Ina drops a
bombshell by declaring that she has found someone she would like to marry.
Munidang
However, since she loves both the narrator and the other man, she does not want a divorce but
rather two husbands. The narrator tries to conciliate, threaten and persuade her but ends up
conceding to possessing only half of her. The winner of the Segye Times s 2nd World
Literature Award, the book became an immediate bestseller after publication. The movie based
on the book, which premiered in 2008, has been a box-office success thanks to the strong plot
line and excellent acting. The author Park Hyun-wook is famous as a talented young writer.
Born in Seoul in 1967, he began writing novels in 2001 after graduating from Yonsei
University. His works include the novel Where Did the Bird Go (Saeneun) and the short story
“Life is Tough to Be a Grown Man” (Dongjeong Eomneun Sesang). This year, he has once
again been drawing attention with a new book of short stories called In Her Bed (Geu Yeojaui
Chimdae).
By Min Hyunbaei
Copyright Agent : Jung sara
www.munidang.co.kr
My Wife Got Married
(Anaega Gyeolhonhaetta)
Park Hyun-wook
Munidang
2006, 360 pages
ISBN 89-7574-330-4
97
The Washing Place
Munidang
Lee Kyung-ja’s novel The Washing Place begins with the painting of the same name by the
late Korean painter Park Su-geun. After being sold at the highest price in Korean auction
history, Park’s The Washing Place was embroiled in forgery charges, and the legal dispute
continues today. Lee’s book is not concerned with her opinion or judgment in the forgery
debate. Rather, it focuses on restoring the human side of “Park Su-geun who never knew
whether his family ate or starved but devoted himself wholly to his art though he never had a
single individual exhibition” and the love and hate drama of Park’s son Seongnam who could
not understand and therefore resented his father but eventually also became an artist by
copying his father’s paintings. The novel begins with Park Seongnam hearing about the
magazine article that accuses The Washing Place as forgery, and ends with Seongnam
listening to the American John Riggs, the owner of the painting, explaining how he came to
possess the painting. While the author does assume a position regarding the forgery
controversy in the book, she does not intend to advance it through The Washing Place but
rather enriches the reader’s understanding and respect for “the artist Park Su-geun.”
By Choi Jaebong
www.munidang.co.kr
The Washing Place
(Ppalaeteo)
Lee Kyung-ja
Munidang
2009, 252 pages
ISBN 978-89-7456-420-9
98
LTI Korea
Sing to me, Guitar
Cho Yong Ho’s novel Sing to me, Guitar is a novel full of songs, about and for songs as well.
The title itself comes from the song “Guitarra, Dimelo Tu” by Atahualpa Yupanqui, one of the
leading singers of the “Nueva Canción” (New Song) movement in Latin America. Songs by
other Latin American singers like Mercedes Sosa and Korean songs from different eras and
regions-such as the protest songs of the 1980s, folk songs and traditional songs-are sung
throughout the book.
Munidang
After the disappearance of Yeonu, a fellow protest singer from his university years in the
1980s, the narrator and Seungmi, Yeonu’s wife whom he had met while they were both active
as protest singers, search for him using the memo he left behind. Yeonu’s memos and the
narrator and Seungmi’s search cross paths throughout the novel. The memos reveal the
missing singer’s coming-of-age years, the protest song movement on campus and his unstable
and impulsive love for Seonhwa, the woman of his destiny. Yeonu is in fact on a search of his
own; as he looks for a woman named Seonhwa, who has also vanished, his wife and friend are
trailing after him. The story finally ends at a faraway beach in Chile. A kind of homage to
songs, this novel draws heavily from the author’s own experience as a member of a activist
singing group during his university years.
By Choi Jaebong
www.munidang.co.kr
Sing to me, Guitar
(Gitayeo Nega Malhaedao)
Cho Yong Ho
Munidang
2010, 280 pages
ISBN 978-89-7456-435-3
99
P
R
S
T
W
Y
Person & Idea
Prunsoop
Random House
Saeum
Silcheonmunhak
Samtoh
Sallim
Sanzini Books
Thatbook
Thinking Tree
Wisdomhouse
Woongjin ThinkBig
Yolimwon
Spinning-wheel
Constantinus: The Man Who Became a
God
The main plot of Constantinus: The Man Who Became a God (Soseol Konseutantinuseu-Sini
Doen Sanai) is that the orthodox doctrine of Christianity was greatly distorted by the political
intentions of the Roman emperor. This book is a historical fiction on Christianity that depicts
in detail why and how Christianity became an exclusive religion, based on thorough historical
data and research on the Roman Emperor Constantinus and the circumstances of the time.
Constantinus was born in 275 AD to an officer in the Roman army. When his father Flavius
Constantinus, commonly called Chlorus, became the emperor of the Roman Empire,
Constantinus also became a man of power in Rome. Following the Great Persecution of the
previous emperor, Constantinus led the oppression of Christianity. However, he began to have
awe and respect for the religion that continued to survive despite repeated persecution.
When he became the emperor of the Roman Empire, Constantinus fully realized the need for
the Divine Right of Kings in order to secure the permanent stability of his position and the
empire. Since traditional Roman gods based on polytheism were not fit to grant absolute
power to the emperor, he chose the monotheistic religion of Christianity. Gradually,
Christianity became distorted as it turned into an issue of politics rather than religion.
Person & Idea
While explaining the process of distortion of Christianity, the author raises a fundamental
question on the orthodox doctrine that has been dominating Christianity over the past 1,700
years. Even if the reader disagrees with the message of the book, the amount of historical data
and reference documents used in this book is of great value in itself.
By Min Hyunbae
Copyright Agent : Park Moon Sook
www.inmul.co.kr
Constantinus: The Man Who Became a God
(Soseol Konseutantinuseu-Sini Doen Sanai)
Lew Sangtae
Person & Idea Publishing Co.
2008, 375 pages
ISBN: 978-89-5906-096-2
102
LTI Korea
Cholatse
In 1993, Park Bumshin abruptly announced that he was putting down his pen. He explained: “I
wrote constantly because I wanted to become more famous, more loved, and have more
authority. Then, one day, I couldn’t manage even a single page. Writing had become too
painful, and I had no more imagination left.” Three years later in 1996, Park published A Black
Cart Pulled by a White Ox (Huin Soga Kkeuneun Geomeun Sure) and resumed his writing
career. A change of heart had come over him during a trip to the Himalayas-the natural setting
had helped to clear away the toxins that plagued his heart and mind during those three years.
He has since been to the Himalayas six times.
Cholatse was written by Park Bumshin, an “eternally young writer,” who has been publishing
his work on the internet portal site Naver since August 2008. He is the first Korean writer to
publish a novel online. “Cholatse” is the name of one of the peaks in the Himalayas; it reaches
6,440 meters in height. The novel is based on the true story of mountain climbers Park
Jungheon and Choi Kangshik, who were stranded while climbing Cholatse in spring 2005. The
author, Park Bumshin, portrays the futility of modern life amidst the trappings of the
conveniences of civilization. Cholatse lays bear the dreams and wildness that have been lost to
modernity and exposes how people become all the more dignified in extreme circumstances.
By Lee Seungwon
Prunsoop
Copyright Agent : Kim Mijung
www.prunsoop.co.kr
Cholatse
(Chollache)
Park Bumshin
Prunsoop Publishing Co., Ltd.
2008, 330 pages
ISBN 978-89-7184-767-1
103
A Lucky Dream
Oh Jung-hee’s short story “Chinatown” (Jungguin Geori) has long become a classic in Korean
modern literature. Her books show intellectual malaise, which is the ultimate level of malaise
that no one can approximate. After sweeping a number of awards including the Yi Sang
Literary Award and the Dongin Literary Award, she won the 2003 Liberaturpreis, one of the
major literary prizes in Germany for the translation of her novel Bird (Vögel), marking the first
time a Korean writer won a literary prize abroad.
A Lucky Dream (Doeji Kkum) is a collection of fables that commemorates the 40th
anniversary of her literary debut. The 25 short stories in this book are works she has published
in various corporate magazines and popular media during her career. Most of the main
characters are middle-aged women. A Lucky Dream depicts the true reality of life in a simple
and candid style through the stories of middle-aged women who lead banal lives in their
withering bodies. It delicately captures the abstract aspects of our lives such as joy, love,
sadness and anger, which are entwined on the other side of ordinary and simple everyday life.
Thus, it goes beyond the individual existence of a woman and draws out reflection on the
existential origin of a human being. For readers who believe in the unique nature of their lives,
this book will show that the joys, sorrows and wavering of heart others experience daily are
not so much different from their own.
Random House Korea
By Lee Seungwon
Copyright Agent : Jang Jeong Woon
www.randombooks.co.kr
A Lucky Dream
(Doeji Kkum)
Oh Jung-hee
Random House Korea
2008, 228 pages
ISBN 978-89-255-3064-2
104
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Beautiful House at Sunset
Even though the short stories in Ku Hyoseo’s new collection Beautiful House at Sunset are so
varied that they cannot be brought together in one framework, they all share one distinct
commonality, that is, the author’s latest reflections on death. A middle-aged couple building a
country home in a rural village are the main characters of the title story. The house is called
Seokgaheon because it provides a view of the beautiful sunset. However, there is a grave in the
middle of the yard of this charming house. While the wife wants to find a family member and
move the grave, the husband does not seem to agree. In the end, the wife relents, saying
“Death is always everywhere. So what if it’s in our yard?” It is only at the end of the story that
she finds out about her husband’s terminal illness that he has been hiding from her. The grave
in the yard symbolizes death, death which is a part of life. The old woman possessed by a
mysterious spirit in “Shamanic Brass Mirror” tells people who have come to see her out of fear
and pain to “learn the secret of death saving life.” This is based on the idea that life and death
are interlinked and therefore cannot be separated. The author’s stylistic experimentation is
shown in the title story, which makes use of the scenario method; “TV, Overlapped,” which is
narrated by a man who has the intelligence of a child; and “Tuning: Songs of Moonlight on a
Thousand Rivers for the Piano,” which is written in the honorific form.
By Choi Jaebong
Random House Korea
Beautiful House at Sunset
(Jeonyeogi Areumdaun Jip)
Ku Hyoseo
Random House Korea
2009, 314 pages
ISBN 978-89-255-3429-9
105
A Suspicious Day
Lee Na Mi’s A Suspicious Day is a collection of nine short stories, which look at the tiring
daily life of ordinary people around us. In “The Crab and the Sea Anemone,” a man and a
woman who have hit rock bottom exchange e-mails in which they both pretend to be someone
more well-off. “Jacqueline’s Tears” is a story about the former CEO of a large company who,
while earning a living as a street vendor in the subway, dies in a subway arson attack. Based
on the true story of the Daegu subway fire, this story contrasts the deaths of innocent citizens
with the conductor who locks the exit and escapes the fire alone; it also tells of the public
servants who hide the bodies and other remaining articles with an excavator so that the higherups do not witness such a horrible scene. In “Green and Verdant” the narrator’s younger
brother commits suicide because he cannot endure the hardship of military service. On the
other hand, the middle-aged female patients in “Ramie Basket” engage in a psychological
warfare at the hospital to satisfy their greed. A woman living on the fourth floor of a rundown
building takes care of a tortoise in “The Last Room on Earth,” while the bodies of the
unnamed soldiers are exhumed in order to give some peace to their families in “The
Exhumer.”
By Choi Jaebong
Random House Korea
A Suspicious Day
(Susanghan Haru)
Lee Na Mi
Random House Korea
2010, 310 pages
ISBN 978-89-2553-838-9
106
LTI Korea
The Forbidden Book of 1000 Years
Having explored the history and destiny of the Korean people in his previous works such as
The Rose of Sharon Has Bloomed (Mugunghwa Kkochi Pieosseumnida) and The Korean
Peninsula (Hanbando), Kim Jinmyung seeks to find the secrets of ancient Korean history in
his new novel The Forbidden Book of 1000 Years. Thanks to his lengthy investigation of the
origin of Han ( ), Korea’s name, Kim explains that he began penning the novel after he found
a reliable document from the 9th century BC that traces the origin of the word.
Internationally known nuclear physicist Yi Jeongseo who has been working in Europe comes
back to Korea at the president’s invitation. Shortly after his return, however, he hears that his
old friend Mijin hanged herself by tying a knot around the Four Books and Three Classics.
Although the police conclude that she has committed suicide, Jeongseo remains skeptical and
investigates her death. During the investigation, he finds a file named “The Astronomical
Truth of Historical Records” on Mijin’s computer. Based on Mijin’s research, the book argues
that the “ruler of Han” (
) mentioned in the Classic of Poetry, a Chinese collection of
poems which was compiled around the 7th century BC, is the ancestor who built the first
country on the ancient Korean peninsula long before Gojoseon and also the source of the
character han in the country’s present name “Daehan Minguk.” When Mijin’s research
colleague Professor Han Eunwon disappears after Mijin’s mysterious death, the story becomes
even more interesting with the dual task of solving historical mysteries as well as the murder
and missing persons cases.
Copyright Agent : Gim Hwa Yeong
www.saeumbook.co.kr
The Forbidden Book of 1000 Years
(Cheonnyeonui Geumseo)
Kim Jinmyung
Saeum
2009, 328 pages
ISBN 978-89-88537-01-5
107
Saeum
By Choi Jaebong
Tokko Joon
Koh Jong-sok’s novel Tokko Joon is an interesting attempt. This novel is about what happens
to Tokko Joon, the main character of the novels A Gray Man (Hoesaegin) and Journey to the
West (Seoyugi) by a fellow writer Choi In-hoon, after those novels end. Whereas Choi’s
novels cover Tokko Joon’s university years, Koh’s novel looks at the prime of his life as a
writer with a family through his suicide at age 74 from the perspective of his daughter. In
Tokko Joon, his daughter Tokko Won reads his diary (entries from April 28, 1960 to
December 19, 2007) after his suicide and reflects on her father. Joon, who had advocated
“being buried deep in a gray chair and only looking at the world with hazy eyes” in A Gray
Man, has finally established his reputation as a novelist. He is married with two daughters.
Some of the expressions-“a singular being who is a border rider,” “left-wing individualist,” “a
pessimist,” “ice cold skepticism” and “crystal clear language”-that his daughter uses to
describe him reveal his personality and writing. His entry following the April 19 Revolution
reads, “I was an onlooker of the revolution”; in another entry, he writes, “I was criticized as a
gray man’ by both the participatory literature and pure literature circles.” These diary entries
in Koh’s book help the readers understand Choi In-hoon’s position in the literary world.
By Choi Jaebong
Saeum
Copyright Agent : Gim Hwa Yeong
www.saeumbook.co.kr
Tokko Joon
Koh Jong-sok
Saeum
2010, 412 pages
ISBN 978-89-9396-422-6
108
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Russian Coffee
Kim Takhwan’s Russian Coffee leads us to the time of Emperor Gojong who had to witness
the collapse of Joseon Dynasty. The title “Noseoa Gabi” refers to “Russian Coffee,” gabi
being the phonetic transcription of the Russian word for coffee. Emperor Gojong, who had to
escape his rightful palace to the Russian Legation, acquired a taste for coffee while staying
there. One day, interpreter Kim Hong-ryuk was removed from his seat of power and exiled to
Heuksando. Harboring a grudge against the royal family, Kim was caught mixing poison into
the coffee the emperor and the crowned prince drank; he was thus executed and decapitated.
The author creates an interesting main character named Tanya who works as the Emperor
Gojong’s barista. Born to the family of an official government interpreter, Tanya crosses the
border to Russia at 19 when her father who attended a journey to Qing China is found dead
under questionable circumstances. While in Russia, she meets Ivan, a man from Joseon who
runs with a group of crooks and sells the vast Russian forest to European nobles, and returns to
Joseon. What ensues is an intense battle of brains between Tanya and Ivan who is suspected of
involvement with her father’s death. By weaving the lives of historical figures such as the
Russian diplomatic minister Weber, Min Yeong-hwan and Yi Wan-yong, who compete to
control the destiny of the collapsing Joseon, the book mixes history with imagination and
provides an interesting reading experience.
By Choi Jaebong
Sallim
Copyright Agent : Park Jinny
www.sallimbooks.com
Russian Coffee
(Noseoa Gabi)
Kim Takhwan
Sallim Publishing Co.
2009, 242 pages
ISBN 978-89-522-1196-5
109
The Miracles in My Past, The Miracles
in My Future
As of June 2009, two posthumous books by two different writers rank at the top of the
bestseller list. One of them is Honey, Could You Help Me?, a collection of essays by the
former president Roh Moo-hyun whose sudden suicide shocked Korean society; and the other
is also a collection of essays titled The Miracles in My Past, The Miracles in My Future by
Jang Young-hee, former professor of English literature at Seogang University and essayist
who lost her battle against cancer. While Honey, Could You Help Me? was published some
time ago and now regaining attention, Professor Jang made the final revision of her new book
just before her death.
The infantile paralysis she suffered when she was one left her lame for the rest of her life. She
was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001 and spinal cord cancer in 2004 which had spread to
her liver by 2006. However, despite suffering from what could be considered the worst
conditions of life, she did not relinquish love and hope for life, humanity and the world. She
believed that “hope is a great power that can even change one’s destiny.” With the illness that
weakened her existence, “each and every day of life was a miracle” for the author and such
faith and positive attitude were indeed the miracle of her life. Though the author has passed
away, we can read her book and appreciate the miracles she has left us in our lives.
By Choi Jaebong
Samtoh
Copyright Agent : Hong, Mira
[email protected] +82 2 763 8965 (Ext. 204)/+82 10 2302 5438
www.isamtoh.com
The Miracles in My Past, The Miracles in My Future
(Saraon Gijeok, Saragal Gijeok)
Jang Young-hee
Samtoh Co., Ltd.
2009, 235 pages
ISBN 978-89-464-1748-9
110
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Family: The Front View
The series Family (Gajok) by novelist Choi In-ho was first published in the monthly magazine
Samtoh in September 1975. The series has been continuing for the past 34 years since then
(except for 7 months last year when he underwent a major operation for cancer) and has been
turned into 7 independent volumes. Family: The Front View has compiled the episodes
between June 2002 and September 2005 (episodes 321-360), while Family: The Rear View
(Gajok Dwit Moseup) has compiled the episodes between October 2005 and August 2009
(episodes 361-400).
Family is a story of the author’s own family as well as all other families in Korea. Though it is
called a novel, it reads more like the author’s diary or personal essay. His daughter and son
who were four and two when he began the series have grown up and married and now each has
a daughter. Meanwhile, his mother, two sisters and uncle have passed away. What does family
mean to the author who has been writing stories about families for over 30 years? He answers,
“Family is an object that demands the most patience and also a partner that demands the
biggest sacrifice and unconditional forgiveness.”
By Choi Jae-bong
Samtoh
Copyright Agent : Hong, Mira
[email protected] +82 2 763 8965 (Ext. 204)/+82 10 2302 5438
www.isamtoh.com
Family: The Front View
(Gajok Ap Moseup)
Choi In-ho
Samtoh Co., Ltd.
2009, 296 pages
ISBN 978-89-464-1756-4
111
The Light
It has taken nine years for novelist Kim Gomchi since he won the Hankyoreh Literary Prize in
1999 for his debut Noodles with My Mom (Eommawa Hamkke Kalguksu) to write this new
novel The Light (Bit). In the past decade, writing reports on the environment and life, the
writer has been focusing more on social issues.
The Light is a novel about Christianity. The author is neither a blind believer nor a critic of
Christianity. Instead, he eliminates the mystery that surrounds God and Jesus. The Light
depicts Jesus defecating and beating up Paul, the disciple who authored the Christian doctrine.
It is also an awkward love story between a woman who goes to church and a man who does
not. The author sees God not as the humane God as portrayed in the Bible but as Gaia, or the
natural God. He questions why the Christian doctrine is still powerful today.
Kim Gomchi does not offer a grand narrative on Christianity. He puts together the love story
of an average couple set in 2007 in Busan, Korea as well as the story of un-deified Jesus and
God. The main character Gyeongtae denies the “immaculate conception” of Virgin Mary, the
“second advent” of Jesus, which is considered to have been written by Paul, and Paul’s attitude
toward Jesus who “atones for the original sin.” Kim’s The Light portrays not a dogmatic but
humane Jesus. This is the essence of the “defecating Jesus.”
By Min Hyunbae
Sanzini Books
Copyright Agent : Kim Eun-gyeong
www.sanzinibook.com
The Light
(Bit)
Kim Gomchi
Sanzini Books
2008, 392 pages
ISBN 978-89-9223-544-0
112
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I Am Dance
The poems by poet Kim Seonu are praised for creating a perfect image of femininity through
the body. Her first collection of poems If My Tongue Refuses to Be Imprisoned in My Mouth
(Nae Hyeoga Ip Soge Gacheo Itgil Geobuhandamyeon) also created an image of a shy yet
sensual female body. Her second book Falling Asleep under a Peach Blossoms (Dohwa Arae
Jamdeulda) explored the fullness of nature and life while maintaining a unique perspective on
femininity. This book was selected as one of the “100 Beautiful Korean Books” at the 2005
Frankfurt Book Fair and has been translated and published by Delta Publications in Germany
in 2009.
I Am Dance (Naneun Chumida) is Kim’s first novel. The main character of the novel is Choe
Seunghui, the first cosmopolitan dancer of Joseon. Choe Seunghui was the best modern dancer
of colonized Joseon and a world star who was well known all over the world. Famous as a
“dancer of the Orient,” Choe’s life itself was a dramatic novel. She had multiple personalities,
Choe Seunghui the dancer, Choe Seunghui the collaborator of imperialism, and Choe
Seunghui the political victim who was purged by Kim Il-sung after defecting to North Korea
to name a few. Her turbulent life has been resurrected by Kim’s sensuous words, through
which readers will be able to understand the depth of life, love, true art and free spirit of Choe
Seunghui, an intense egoist with a nomadic sensibility who yearned for freedom and art.
By Lee Seungwon
Silcheonmunhak
Copyright Agent : Kim Hyesun
www.silcheon.com
I Am Dance
(Naneun Chumida)
Kim Seonu
Silcheonmunhak
2008, 291 pages
ISBN 978-89-3920-600-7
113
“A Spoon on the Ground” for Teenagers
Widely known for Sooni’s Uncle (Suni Samchon) which deals with the “April 3 Uprising” in
Jeju-do (island), Hyeon Giyeong is a writer who makes the lives of the oppressed and
discriminated people in history the subject of his writing. Since Sooni s Uncle, Hyeon has
continued to publish works on the lives, joys and sorrows of the people of Jeju-do, and came to
be known as a “April 3 writer.” Though his works take place on Jeju-do, they unveil
confrontation against the fascist worldview, which involves discrimination, exclusion,
assimilation and mobilization.
Ttonggingi is a version for young adults of A Spoon on the Ground (Jisange Sutgarak Hana), a
novel published in 1999 that has sold some 450,000 copies. A Spoon on the Ground has been
highly praised as “the best coming-of-age novel in Korean literature that maximizes human
historical existentiality.” Ttonggingi for young adults is a type of coming-of-age novel that
portrays a boy’s life from his birth in Jeju-do in the 1940s to his third year in junior high
school when he enters adolescence. In this novel, Hyeon lyrically shows the meaning of true
growth for a child born during a war. In addition, Park Jaedong, a well-known political
cartoonist, drew the illustrations of the book. His witty and humorous illustrations further
enhance the novel’s lyricism.
By Lee Seungwon
Silcheonmunhak
www.silcheon.com
A Spoon on the Ground for Teenagers
(Ttonggingi)
Hyeon Giyeong
Illustrator: Park Jaedong
Silcheonmunhak
2009, 270 pages
ISBN 978-89-3920-609-0
114
LTI Korea
The Wandering Family
Gong Seon-ok began her career as a writer when she published Seeds of Fire (Ssiatbul) in the
winter issue of The Quarterly Changbi in 1991. Her works deal with issues true to life and
reality. She also sketches various twists and turns in femininity with delicate sentences and
molds energetic female characters. She was a recipient of the Sin Dong-yeop Creation Fund in
1995 and won Today’s Young Artist Award in 2004.
The Wandering Family consists of five stories that were serialized in the Silcheon Munhak
from the spring of 2002 to the spring of 2003. To improve the quality of the novel, the author
spent two additional years revising the stories before publishing it. The main characters of this
novel are all wanderers outside the institution. Gong paints a landscape of the sad, weary lives
of people who have been ejected from the real world after failing to integrate themselves. The
Wandering Family conveys affection and sympathy toward those who are forced to roam the
bottom of the social scale, in addition to expressing sharp criticism on the dehumanization of
modern society. As the author once stated, this novel is a dedication to “wanderers who are too
poor to plant themselves anywhere in this world.”
By Lee Seungwon
Silcheonmunhak
www.silcheon.com
The Wandering Family
(Yurang Gajok)
Gong Seon-ok
Silcheonmunhak
2005, 267 pages
ISBN 89-3920-07-3
115
Cowbell
Through a portrayal of the relationship between humans and a cow, Lee Sunwon’s novel
Cowbell attempts to remind us of the values we have lost. The novel begins in the summer of
2008 when the spirit of a cow called Geomeunnunso recognizes his former owner, the
youngest son of Chamujip, in the crowd demonstrating against the import of US beef. From
there, the novel takes us through the history of twelve generations of cows and four
generations of men at Chamujip, as remembered by Geomeunnunso. The story begins when
Geuritso first arrives at Chamujip, a farmhouse deep in the hills of Daegwallyeong, Gangwondo. Geuritso gives birth to Huinbyeolso; on the same day, the wife of the eldest son of
Chamujip also gives birth to a son. From then on, the relationship between men and cows
continues though the generations not as one of breeding and feeding but as “partners in
agricultural cooperation.” The novel looks into 120 years of modern Korean history from the
Gapsin Coup of 1884 to the candlelight demonstrations of 2008, through the prism of the cowhuman relationship. The stories include “Hwadeungbulso,” which got shot after charging
against the Japanese policeman that tortured its owner’s wife; the conflicting popular
sentiments about the cow during the war; and Seil, who used to be scorned because of his
disability but managed to heal his wounds after becoming a cattle drover. Geomeunnunso
deplores the present reality where “the ground bones and heads of our brothers are fed to us
herbivores.” His lament deeply touches and pains the reader.
By Choi Jaebong
Silcheonmunhak
www.silcheon.com
Cowbell
(Wonang)
Lee Sunwon
Silcheonmunhak
2010, 296 pages
ISBN 978-89-392-0626-7
116
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A Flat Tortoise Dancing under the Sun
Marado is one of the two small islands located in the south of Jeju Island. It is further south
than the other island and has a marking stone that says “The southernmost point of the
Republic of Korea.” This plays a big role in attracting tourists to Marado over many other
islands of the Korean Peninsula. Cho Hunyong’s second collection of stories, A Flat Tortoise
Dancing under the Sun, brings together seven short stories set in Marado. The main characters
of these seven short stories including “The Man from the Earth”-about a man who has exiled
himself to the island with the grand mission to write-are the outsiders who have come to
Marado under particular circumstances.
In “A Friend from Paradise,” the writer’s friend who is running away from his gambling debt
comes to stay with the writer in Marado. But he runs away again after causing much trouble. A
blind man comes to the island in “An Angel from the City” to retrace his memories of his
mother who left him when he was a child. There is also the old man in “The Man from the
North” who came to the south from North Korea for the gisaeng (female entertainers) and has
not been able to return home. “You want to run away from your tiresome life-from the daily
subway commute from Nokcheon to Bucheon-and from your wife who keeps tugging at your
hand.” The stories of those who have come to Marado seem to represent the paradoxical reality
of today’s Korean society.
By Choi Jaebong
Silcheonmunhak
www.silcheon.com
A Flat Tortoise Dancing under the Sun
(Haetbyeot Arae Chumchuneun Napjak Geobugi)
Cho Hunyong
Silcheonmunhak
2010, 240 pages
ISBN 978-89-3920-641-0
117
The Age of Myths
The Age of Myths (Sinhwaui Sidae) is the last work of Yi Chong-jun who was praised as the
most intellectual writer in Korea and whose works moved a great number of readers. It is
therefore odd that most readers are not familiar with this work, despite the author’s fame.
When the book was written, the author was gravely ill and the author’s family, who were
concerned that the book could be used for commercial gain, decided not to announce its
existence. Therefore, The Age of Myths was not published until a few months after the author
had passed away in 2008.
Though the author had originally planned to compose the book in three parts, only one of the
parts had been completed at the time of his death. However, since each part has its own
conclusion, it can be seen as a complete work. The setting is Korea in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries when Western culture was first introduced. The story of a legendary figure
Taesan (which means “great mountain”), who led a life of many vicissitudes, unfolds from his
birth to his departure from his hometown. While discussing reality and history, the author
brings out the underlying myths and invites the readers to the world of myths.
Yi Chong-jun once observed that “a novel is both a struggle and a game played with the
reader, and the writer should not show his cards until the very end.” The Age of Myths feels
like the last hand he played with the readers and the world.
Spinning-wheel
By Min Hyunbae
Copyright Agent : Kim Su young
Blog.naver.com/spin-wheel
The Age of Myths
(Sinhwaui Sidae)
Yi Chong-jun
Spinning-wheel Publishing Co.
2008, 356 pages
ISBN 978-89-8865-326-5
118
LTI Korea
Marilyn and I
In February 1954, Marilyn Monroe, the sex symbol of the century, visited Korea. The purpose
of her visit was to entertain the US Army based in Korea. The encounter between Monroe-the
embodiment of beauty-and Korea, in ruins after the war, was itself an interesting incident.
However, Lee Jimin’s novel Marilyn and I focuses on a fictional character, a young Korean
woman called Alice who serves as Marilyn’s translator during her visit. Having created a
plausible story set in 1930s Gyeongseong in her previous book Modern Boy, Lee makes
another attempt to travel back in time.
The story develops, spanning a few time periods: 1947, the period of U.S. military
government; between 1950 and 1951, the peak of Korean War; and February 1954, which
serves as the present in the narrative. As the history of love and betrayal unfolds between Alice
and Yeo Minhwan, a mysterious married man and a left-wing elite who also keeps a close
relationship with the American government, their relationship, combined with the tragic war,
leads to a terrible incident. In the scenes that depict the main characters’ escape from the
mayhem of Heungnam Port and the tense development of the operation to arrest a North
Korean spy, the author’s talent as a storyteller dazzles the reader.
By Choi Jaebong
Thatbook
Copyright Agent : Kim A ram
Marilyn and I
(Nawa Marilyn)
Lee Jimin
Thatbook Co., Ltd.
2009, 255 pages
ISBN 978-89-9614-489-2
119
Song of Strings
The author Kim Hoon’s imagination shines in the Song of Strings. Kim has penned a fulllength novel based on the story of the sixth-century musician U Reuk, known only through a
few lines in Samguk sagi (The History of the Three Kingdoms), the oldest history book in
Korea. U Reuk, who invented a new string instrument that has 12 strings attached to its
paulownia body, surrendered to Silla with his instrument upon learning that his country Gaya
had been fallen to Silla. The artist had to make a choice between giving up his music to share
the fate of his country and turning a blind eye to his country’s political demise to hold on to
music. However, while composing music and performing for the king of Silla, U Reuk
declared that his homeland was not Gaya or Silla but his instrument and music. It is therefore
ironic that his invention gayageum carries the name of his homeland despite his abandonment
and betrayal of Gaya. U Reuk’s character resembles that of Yi Sun-sin, historically the most
esteemed naval commander of Joseon and also the main character of Kim’s first successful
novel Song of the Sword (Kareui Norae); Yi’s only allegiance was to “the reality of the
sword.” The novel reveals a magnificent drama that lies in the tension between the tragic last
days of Gaya and the artistic spirit of U Reuk striving for perfection.
By Choi Jaebong
Thinking Tree
Copyright Agent : Ku, Tae-eun
www.itreebook.com
Song of Strings
(Hyeonui Norae)
Kim Hoon
Thinking Tree Publishing Co., Ltd.
2007, 357 pages
ISBN 978-89-8498-726-5
120
LTI Korea
Water Tank Station
Tae Ki-soo’s Water Tank Station is about two people who use the water tank next to the
rooftop room as a halfway station where they swap identities. The main character Sejong lives
in a rooftop room next to a water tank. One day, he opens the water tank out of curiosity and
finds a man living inside equipped with a bed, books and other household items. While the
man is out, Sejong enters into the water tank and falls into a deep sleep. Upon waking up,
however, he is faced with a reality where the man from the water tank is now living as Sejong.
Everyone, including Sejong’s girlfriend and coworkers, is treating the man as if he were
Sejong. After giving it some thought, Sejong decides to take on the man’s identity. He takes
over the man’s job as a day-to-day construction worker, lives with the man’s girlfriend and
also sees the man’s other girlfriend who is a divorcee.
The water tank, where neither cell phones nor clocks work and time flows differently from the
outside world, is a magical space where identities can be traded. His subsequent sweet somber
in the tank and changes which mark a new life can be seen as an unexpected gift and source of
pleasure, but the loss of identity ultimately symbolizes death. This novel is an eerie fable on
the identity of a modern man that appears to be immutable but is in fact flexible and unfixed.
By Choi Jaebong
Thinking Tree
Copyright Agent : Ku, Tae-eun
www.itreebook.com
Water Tank Station
(Multaengkeu Jeongnyujang)
Tae Ki-soo
Thinking Tree Publishing Co., Ltd.
2010, 240 pages
ISBN 978-89-6460-027-6
121
The Gaeseong Merchant of Venice
In 1983, a painting by Rubens, Korean Man, made the headlines when it was sold at a high price at
Christie’s in London. Rubens painted this work some 400 years ago, using a man from Joseon
dressed in Korean traditional costume as his model. There are two additional supporting facts: first is
the record that an Italian named Francesco Carletti took a young man from Joseon named Antonio
Corea to Italy via Japan in the sixteenth century; second is that there are people whose last name is
Corea living in a small village called Albi in southern Italy. Though these facts seem to be related,
there is no historical evidence that links them directly. The Gaeseong Merchant of Venice (Beniseuui
Gaeseong Sangin) is a historical faction that begins with the hypothesis that these facts may be
correlated.
In the book, Yu Seungeop, a merchant from the Joseon era, and Yu Myeonghun, a CEO in presentday Korea, respectively represent the past and present. While on his business trip to Italy, Yu
Myeonghun comes across Rubens’ Korean Man at an art gallery that he happens to visit. The life of
Antonio Corea who dominated international trade after being taken to Italy as a captive during the
Japanese invasion of 1592 and Yu Myeonghun’s persistent efforts to find an outlet in the whirlpool
of international economic war offer the reader the exciting stories of the two figures who overcame
each and every hardship with wisdom, extraordinary business ability, and true business ethics. Their
stories make us re-examine today’s unscrupulous salesmanship, materialism that prioritizes money,
and the cold-hearted logic of infinite competition that does not care at all for the situation of any
other country but its own.
Wisdomhouse
Author Oh Se-young, who studied history at university, says that he has been very much interested in
infusing the dispersed historical records with his imagination. In his brilliant combination of history
and literature, Oh impresses and amuses the readers throughout the book.
By Min Hyunbae
Copyright Agent : Kwon Minkyung
www.wisdomhouse.co.kr
The Gaeseong Merchant of Venice
(Beniseuui Gaeseong Sangin) Vol. 1-2
Oh Se-young
Wisdomhouse Publishing Co., Ltd.
2008, 647 pages
ISBN 978-89-5913-319-2
122
LTI Korea
Pavane for the Deceased Princess
Pavane for the Deceased Princess by Park Min-gyu begins with a simple yet complex
question-“can a man love an ugly woman?” The nineteen-year-old narrator and main
character works part-time in the underground parking lot of a department store, where he
comes across an unattractive woman who also works there. The “I” realizes that even “the
ugliest woman of the century has the power to make men freeze.” In no time, he is infatuated
with the woman who is the same age. The narrator, on the other hand, is a very handsome man,
once voted “Mr. Part-Time” by the female employees in an impromptu popularity contest.
Through an improbable plot, the author explores the possibility of “politically correct love.”
To the main character and the author, the preference for physically attractive women is no
different from the worship of unjust power. Why “1% of the people rule over the remaining
99% despite democracy and decision-making by majority” is the question posed and the cause
for discontent in the novel. Therefore, love for an ugly woman continues the author’s theme of
“compassion for the minority” also seen in his previous works, The Last Fan Club for Sammi
Superstars (Sammi Syupeoseutajeuui Majimak Paenkeulleop) and Ping Pong.
By Choi Jaebong
Wisdomhouse
Pavane for the Deceased Princess
(Jugeun Wangnyeoreul Wihan Pavane)
Park Min-gyu
2009, 420 pages
ISBN 978-89-5913-391-8
123
The Sphere of Despair
One day a mysterious object that looks like a black sphere appears in the city. This sphere, two
meters in diameter, moves at a walking speed toward the closest person and anyone who
touches its surface is sucked into the sphere. It is indestructible and continues to absorb more
and more people. Chaos ensues as people run to save themselves and stop trusting each other.
Kim Leehwan’s novel The Sphere of Despair transports readers to a situation that resembles
Blindness by Jos Samarago. The main character Kim Jeongsu desperately tries to run away
from the sphere like everyone else but realizes one day that he is immune from the sphere’s
danger. One day, the sphere disappears as suddenly as it appeared and the people who had
been sucked into the sphere all return alive. While the identity of the sphere remains a mystery,
those who have come back become suspicious of Kim Jeongsu who has been left unharmed by
the sphere and plan to take revenge on him. Now Kim is a wanted man. The novel, which
begins with “He is running away” and ends with “The man is running away,” uses the
techniques of a genre novel to portray unidentified fears and anxieties that seize modern
people.
By Choi Jaebong
Wisdomhouse
The Sphere of Despair
(Jeolmangui Gu)
Kim Leehwan
2009, 430 pages
ISBN 9798-89-591-3398-7
124
LTI Korea
Candle Flower
Kim Seonu’s novel Candle Flower is a wreath to candlelight demonstrations that took place
between May and June 2008 in central Seoul. The demonstrations against the import of US
beef take place in this novel almost in real time. The main character Jio comes from a remote
village called Rainbow in Canada. She can speak five to six languages and communicate with
animals and plants, skills which make her both more attractive and less plausible. Part-Korean,
fifteen-year-old Jio stays in Seoul for about a month and experiences candlelight
demonstrations, which become the main plot of the novel. Jio follows her Korean host
Huiyeong and her friend Yeonu into the center of the demonstrations. The novel covers the
protests from various angles like a TV camera; in the midst of a confused and disorganized
crowd, it captures their transformation into an explosion of free and beautiful imagination.
However, things change rapidly when Yeonu gets hurt as a result of violent response by the
police and an incident of spying breaks out. By the time Jio returns to Canada, the
demonstrations dissipate. However, the novel strongly hints that rather than being completely
put out, the candles will continue to burn in the protesters’ hearts.
By Choi Jaebong
Wisdomhouse
Candle Flower
(Kaendeul Peullawo)
Kim Seonu
2010, 384 pages
ISBN 978-89-591-3424-3
125
22 Days: Möbius Library
22 Days: Möbius Library (22 Il Moebiuseu Seojae) is a unique mystery novel that has been
praised for its cinematic technique, which has led to the sale of the movie rights even before
the publication of the book. A story of homicide detectives pursuing a serial killer who has
killed two children, it follows the classic formula of the thriller, which includes a serial
murder, investigation and pursuit by detectives, a case shrouded in mystery, and repeated
twists and turns.
A series of children are found murdered in the outskirts of Seoul. A scar in the shape of a cross
is found on the chests of the strangled children and their faces are covered with bizarre graffiti.
While uncovering the children’s identity, the homicide detectives from the district discover
that the young victims all came from an orphanage which had been burned down a few years
ago. They suspect the director of the orphanage as the killer but the case becomes even more
mystifying when he is also murdered.
Through terrible crimes such as the serial killing of children, rape and human trafficking, 22
Days relentlessly stimulates and exposes the guilt and dark side of human beings. The book is
based on the premise that the fundamental cause of crime lies in human selfishness, which
turns a blind eye to the structural contradictions of society and inhuman behaviors. It also
argues that if the situation is not corrected, crime will persist.
Woongjin ThinkBig
Author Choi Sung-gun was an avid reader of Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie as a
child. The elaborate mind games between the great detectives and criminals left a deep
impression on him, eventually leading him to write this book. Choi has a Ph.D. in Economics
and is also a financial expert. He currently teaches a finance-related course at a university,
while he endeavors to write his books.
By Min Hyunbae
Copyright Agent : Claire Yang
www.wjbooks.co.kr
22 Days: Möbius Library
(22 Il-Moebiuseu Seojae)
Choi Sung-gun
Woongjin ThinkBig Co., Ltd.
2008, 372 pages
ISBN 978-89-0108-636-1
126
LTI Korea
New Civilization Inspection Office
Based in Jeju-do during the Joseon era, Kang Ji-young’s New Civilization Inspection Office is
a humorous portrayal of the chaos caused by the introduction of a new civilization. The son of
a nobleman, Ham Bokbae comes to Jeju-do to begin his post as the director of a new
temporary office called the New Civilization Inspection Office. His job is to examine the
mysterious objects sent from Japan and report to the king. Readers have great fun as they
follow Ham, who can be considered an “early adopter,” and his officers misunder-stand the
usage of objects from the New World such as a bra, toothbrush, condom, telescope and fan.
According to their conclusions, the brassiere is the official hat of Western officials; the
condom, a type of thimble; and toothpaste, a medical equipment used to alleviate hemorrhoids.
Then one day a Western man who has been shipwrecked comes under Ham’s command. The
body language used by the man who cannot speak or understand Korean to explain the objects
causes even more confusion. First, he is accused of being lascivious because of the painting he
draws to explain the usage of the bra. Then, the thrusting motions he mimics to account for the
condom leaves the people shocked and astonished. Overcoming the restrictions of historical
research that come with writing historical novels, kang has written a work of “fusion historical
fiction” which adds light and humorous touches to history.
By Choi Jaebong
Woongjin ThinkBig
www.wjbooks.co.kr
New Civilization Inspection Office
(Sinmunmul Geomyeokso)
Kang Ji-young
2009, 312 pages
ISBN 978-89-0109-977-4
127
The Fingerprint Hunter
Lee Juck is a leading Korean singer-songwriter. He has been widening the horizon of Korean
pop songs with tunes such as “The Snail” and “Left-handed.” In his songwriting career thus
far, he has released more than 100 songs that have captivated people’s hearts just as much as
any great story. Lee Juck’s The Fingerprint Hunter is a collection of stories Lee has
occasionally published on his website
-leejuck.com, which was launched in 2002.
The Fingerprint Hunter is a fantastic work of fiction consisting of 12 stories. Born from a dead
virgin’s body and abused as a child, L lives as a hunter who steals people’s fingerprints in
“The Fingerprint Hunter.” In “The Story of Mr. Jebulchal” (Jebulchalssi Iyagi), an ear cleaner
that cleans people’s ears turns into a very small person, goes into people’s ears and takes a
peek into another world. Each of Lee’s stories deals with a fantasy world rarely found in
reality. His stories resemble European Gothic fantasy uncommon in the Korean literary
tradition. Lee’s stories will make readers shudder with languid and dreamlike fear. Also, they
will suddenly realize that such fear does not exist only in fantasy.
By Lee Seungwon
Woongjin ThinkBig
www.wjbooks.co.kr
The Fingerprint Hunter
(Jimun Sanyangkkun)
Lee Juck
2005, 267 pages
ISBN 978-89-010-4984-7
128
LTI Korea
Tower
Bae Myounghoon’s serial novel The Tower includes six stories that take place in the
Beanstalk, a super high rise building of 674 floors. The name of the building is taken from the
children’s story Jack and the Beanstalk. Reaching 2,408 meters in height on a base five
kilometers in width and length, this building is both a city and a state with 500,000 residents.
Circumstances that are unique to the Beanstalk turn this book into science fiction: the
laboratory that attaches electronic tags to expensive liquor bottles and traces their circulation
route; the writer who expertly describes the beauty of nature without ever stepping out of the
building; the building’s complex structure that makes it impossible to find the entrance to the
neighboring apartment; “fear of low heights” felt by the Beanstalk residents who live below
the 50th floor; and the ideological tension between the vertical party that emphasizes
mechanical installations and the horizontal party that prioritizes labor. However, the charm of
this book lies in the fact that such unreal circumstances hold very real meanings. The main
characters are ordinary middle-class people. Though public issues like political oppression and
freedom of speech trouble them on daily basis, they are also very interested in personal issues
such as love and real estate.
By Choi Jaebong
Woongjin ThinkBig
www.wjbooks.co.kr
Tower
(Tawo)
Bae Myounghoon
2009, 280 pages
ISBN 978-89-01-09643-8
129
The Second Door of the Ninth House
Lim Young-tae’s novel The Second Door of the Ninth House brings out the shadowed life of a
ghostwriter into the light. A book written by a ghostwriter is undoubtedly his product but it
rarely gives him satisfaction because, according to him, “ghostwriting is to write something
that is satisfactory to the client rather than myself.” Eom draws on his own experiences to
depict the daily life of a ghostwriter. Though he has been working industriously as a full-time
writer since his debut in 1992 and also been recognized by the literary circle after winning the
prestigious Today’s Writer Award in 1994, he could not secure financial stability. Like the
character in the novel, he also came back to Seoul after spending a few years in the country
and had to make a living as a ghostwriter. The semi-basement of a row house that the main
character uses both as home and office is a space that represents his financial poverty. His
wife’s death and the other wounds, small and large, throughout his life have cast a dark
shadow on his present. As quiet sorrow fills the background, the novel makes us reflect on life,
loneliness, promises not kept and lost happiness. The phrase “we are lonely because we do not
love enough” acts as the theme of this novel, which is filled with an atmosphere of regret.
By Choi Jaebong
Woongjin ThinkBig
www.wjbooks.co.kr
The Second Door of the Ninth House
(Ahop Beonjjae Jip Du Beonjjae Daemun)
Lim Young-tae
2010, 308 pages
ISBN 978-89-01-10557-4
130
LTI Korea
Secret Sunshine: A Tale of Insects
A boy in the fourth grade disappears. Notwithstanding his mother’s hopes for him to come
back alive, he is found dead. She experiences hellish despair and anger, which she slowly
overcomes with belief in God. She finally meets her son’s murderer in order to forgive him.
However, when the murderer tells her that he has already been forgiven and saved by God, the
mother, feeling betrayed by God, drinks poison.
Secret Sunshine: A Tale of Insects (Miryang: Beolle Iyagi) discusses forgiveness, salvation and
human dignity through a story of child abduction and murder. The author records “how human
dignity is trampled upon, how human beings can be reduced to the level of insects, and how
powerless they can be before the absolute being.” Yi Chong-jun made his debut as a writer in
1965 and has left behind a number of monumental works in Korean modern literature before
his passing this year.
This novel was made into a movie by director Lee Chang-dong who had won the Special
Director’s Award at the Venice Film Festival for his film Oasis. The movie Secret Sunshine
(Miryang) was in competition at the 2007 Cannes International Film Festival, where Jeon Doyeon, who played the mother, won the Best Actress award.
By Min Hyunbae
Yolimwon
Copyright Agent : Rosa Han
www.yolimwon.com
Secret Sunshine: A Tale of Insects
(Miryang: Beolle Iyagi)
Yi Chong-jun
Yolimwon Publishing Group
2007, 99 pages
ISBN 978-89-7063-553-8
131
The Mother’s Home
Known as the best romance writer in Korea, Jeon Gyeonglin made her debut when her novel
Desert Moon (Samagui Dal) won the Dong-A Ilbo Spring Literary Contest in 1995. For her
intense imagery and florid style, Jeon won the Yi Sang Literary Award in 2007 with An Angel
Remains Here (Cheonsaneun Yeogi Meomunda). Since her debut, Jeon has been exploring the
inner world of women who are singularly obsessed with their desires. The women in Jeon’s
novels deviate from everyday life or walk a dangerous tightrope on the edge of extreme desire.
In The Mother s Home, Jeon suggests an alternative and ideal type of home. She refers to the
new generation of mothers who desire to possess both virginity and their identity as mothers as
“Ms. N.” This novel is a story of one such mother named Yunjin, who lives in her own home
that is not dependent on anyone including her father, husband or children, and Hoeun,
Yunjin’s 20 year-old daughter and who now desires a home of her own. According to Jeon, to
have one’s own home for a woman is to “be in complete control of her economic, spiritual,
physical and ethical issues.” As suggested by the cultural critic Kim Hyung-joong, this novel is
“a 21st century version of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One s Own in which men and women
no longer exist as gendered beings.”
By Lee Seungwon
Yolimwon
www.yolimwon.com
The Mother s Home
(Oeommaui Jip)
Jeon Gyeonglin
2007, 304 pages
ISBN 978-89-706-3578-1
132
LTI Korea
Non-Possession:
A Novel (The Story of Beopjeong)
Venerable Beopjeong was a popular writer whose books including Non-Possession became
bestsellers as well as steady sellers. When it was announced shortly after his death on March
11 this year that his books will no longer be published in observance of his will, they swept the
bestseller list and were sold out at many bookstores, creating an “extraordinary fever.” Jeong
Chan-ju’s Non-Possession: A Novel (The Story of Beopjeong) is a biographic novel about the
monk who was born in a poor remote village and dreamt of becoming a lighthouse keeper. It
tells the story of his life from dropping out of university to embracing and practicing
Buddhism until he passed away. While staying at Haeinsa, a leading Buddhist temple in
Korea, he devoted himself to translating Tripitaka Koreana into Korean and actively took part
in the anti-dictatorship struggle of the 1970s as the editor of the anti-government magazine
Ssiarui Sori. He befriended mountain animals whom he treated no differently from humans
when he stayed at Buriram, a small temple in the south of Korea. He also continued his efforts
to connect the Hinayana and the Mahayana; the former, also known as the “Lesser Vehicle,” is
the path towards individual enlightenment, whereas the latter, also known as the “Greater
Vehicle,” is the path towards the liberation of all beings by leading them to nirvana. One of his
efforts was to hold regular Buddhist lectures at Gilsangsa, a Buddhist temple in the heart of
Seoul that was built by a generous benefactor, all the while commuting from his humble hut in
the mountains of Gangwon-do. The book gives a vivid account of the life of Venerable
Beopjeong and his stories, including those about his sister by a different father and the
scholarship he gave to students from low-income backgrounds.
www.yolimwon.com
Non-Possession: A Novel (The Story of Beopjeong)
(Soseol Musoyu)
Jeong Chan-ju
2010, 328 pages
ISBN 978-89-7063-655-9
133
Yolimwon
By Choi Jaebong
An introduction to Korean
Fiction
PUBLISHER_Kim Joo-youn
Korea Literature Translation Institute at
108-5 Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul,Republic of Korea 135-873
Telephone : 82-2-6919-7700
Fax : 82-2-3448-4247
E-mail : [email protected]
www.klti.or.kr
www.list.or.kr
www.klti.or.kr www.list.or.kr

queen sondok

Transcription

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