Korean Literature

On the outside, Yumi Chung suffers from #shygirlproblems, a perm-gone-wrong, and kids calling her "Yu-MEAT" because she smells like her family's Korean barbecue restaurant. On the inside, Yumi is ready for her Netflix stand-up special. Her notebook is filled with mortifying memories that she's reworked into comedy gold. All she needs is a stage and courage.

국내 유수 전자제품 회사에는 'SF팀'이 있다는 걸 알고 계십니까? 그냥 아무 SF나 읽다가 괜찮은 발상이 있으면 상부에 보고서를 쓰기만 하면 되는 꿀보직이죠. 그런데 세상에 아무 이유 없는 혜택이란 없는 법입니다….

모두 똑같은 24시간을 사는데, 왜 어떤 사람들은 더 많은 것을 이루는 것일까? 『예술하는 습관』의 저자 메이슨 커리는 이 질문에 대한 답을 위대한 성취를 이룬 예술가들의 보통의 하루에서 찾고자 했다. 충동적이고 즉흥적인 영감으로 일할 것 같은 예술가 대부분은 지독하리만치 규칙적이고 성실했으며 그 누구보다 더 엄격하게 습관을 유지했다.

곽재식은 누구보다도 재미난 이야기 소재들을 사랑하는 작가입니다. 비단 SF뿐만 아니라 동서양의 판타지와 전설 등, 현실 밖의 꿈과 상상과 환상 속에 담긴 이야기들을 찾고 수집하죠. 다루는 소재를 고려하면, 곽재식은 확실히 '장르 소설가'에 속합니다. 전형적이라고 할 수도 있겠죠.

멜랑콜리를 테마로 한 젊은 작가들의 신작 소설집 『보라색 사과의 마음』이 출간됐다. 7만 독자의 마음을 움직인 페미니즘 테마소설집 『현남 오빠에게』 이후, 현재 우리 사회를 관통하는 동시에 지금을 살아가는 현대인이라면 누구나 공감할 만한 주요 테마를 내세운 다산책방의 연속 기획 테마소설집이다. 『보라색 사과의 마음』에는 최민우, 조수경, 임현, 김남숙, 남궁지혜, 이현석 등 최근 한국문단이 주목하는 여섯 명의 신진 작가들의 신작이 실렸다.

1980년대부터 2000년대 초, 대한민국 순정만화 전성기를 한 권으로 추억할 수 있는 『안녕, 나의 순정』이 출간되었다. 신일숙, 황미나, 김혜린, 이빈, 한승원, 이은혜, 한혜연, 박희정, 강경옥, 유시진, 문흥미, 이미라, 나예리, 천계영, 박은아까지. 이름만 들어도 우리를 설레게 만드는 대표 작가 15인의 만화에 담긴 이영희 작가의 추억을 함께 따라가 보자.

곽재식은 누구보다도 재미난 이야기 소재들을 사랑하는 작가입니다. 비단 SF뿐만 아니라 동서양의 판타지와 전설 등, 현실 밖의 꿈과 상상과 환상 속에 담긴 이야기들을 찾고 수집하죠.

"이 책을 여러분들이 꼭 좀 읽어 봤으면 좋겠습니다." 110년 전에 출간된 SF소설이 누군가의 한마디로 전 세계 독자들의 시선을 사로잡았다. 미국, 유럽, 남미 등 전 세계 각지에서 292개 판본이 쏟아져 나왔다. 100여 년 동안 기억 속에서 사라졌던 이 책이 갑자기 주목을 받게 된 이유는 무엇일까? 그 이유는 바로 12억 가톨릭 신자들의 정신적 지도자 프란치스코 교황의 추천 때문이다.

보육원에서 수십 년 전의 TV 시리즈 "수사 반장" 다시 보기에 빠져든 소년. "수사 반장"을 원 없이 보기 위해서는 독립해야 합니다. 가장 빠른 방법은 보육 로봇을 구입하는 것. 보육원에서 돈을 벌기 위한 소년의 눈물겨운 노력이 펼쳐집니다. 감동 주의.

In a Seoul slum marked for demolition, residents’ shadows have begun to rise. No one knows how or why—but, they warn each other, do not follow your shadow if it wanders away. Employees of a small electronics repair shop, Eungyo and Mujae can only watch their tight-knit community begin to fade as the landscape of their lives is torn apart, building by building. Their growing connection with one another provides solace, but against an uncaring ruling class and the inevitability of the rising shadows, their relationship may not be enough.

Whale, set in a remote village in South Korea, follows the lives of many linked characters, including Geumbok, an extremely ambitious woman who has been chasing an indescribable thrill ever since she first saw a whale crest in the ocean; her mute daughter, Chunhui, who communicates with elephants; and a one-eyed woman who controls honeybees with a whistle. Brimming with surprises and wicked humor, Whale is an adventure-satire of epic proportions by one of the most original voices in international literature.

In crisp, unembellished prose, Eunyoung Choi paints intimate portraits of the lives of young women in South Korea, balancing the personal with the political. In the title story, a fraught friendship between an exchange student and her host sister follows them from adolescence to adulthood. In "A Song from Afar", a young woman grapples with the death of her lover, traveling to Russia to search for information about the deceased. In "Secret", the parents of a teacher killed in the Sewol ferry sinking hide the news of her death from her grandmother.

When the Seoul police inform Min that his girlfriend Yu-jin has committed suicide, he’s sure it can't be true. She was successful, ambitious, happy, just on the cusp of graduating from university and claiming the future she’d always dreamed of.

A long-married couple is forced to confront their friend's painful past when a church revival comes to a nearby town ... A woman in an arranged marriage struggles to connect with the son she hid from her husband for years ... A well-meaning sister unwittingly reunites an abuser with his victims. Through an indelible array of lives, Yoon Choi explores where first and second generations either clash or find common ground,

Yeongju is burned out. With her high-­flying career, demanding marriage, and busy life in Seoul, she knows she should feel successful, but all she feels is drained. Yet an abandoned dream nags at her, and in a leap of faith, she leaves her old life behind. Quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeongju moves to a small residential neighborhood outside the city, where she opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.

Katrina Kim may be broke, the black sheep of her family, and slightly unhinged, but she isn’t a stalker. Her obsession with her co-worker, Kurt, is just one of many coping mechanisms—like her constant shape and number rituals, or the way scenes from her favorite children’s book bleed into her vision whenever she feels anxious. But when Katrina finds a cryptic message from Kurt implying he’s aware of her surveillance, her tenuous hold on a normal life crumbles. Driven by compulsion, she makes a midnight visit to the Cayatoga Bridge—just in time to witness Kurt’s suicide.

Four days before Christmas, eight-year-old Bo loses his mother in a tragic accident, twenty-eight-year-old Brandon loses his job after a hostile takeover of his big-media employer, and forty-eight-year-old Blue, a key witness in a criminal trial against an infamous now-defunct tech startup, struggles to reconnect with his family. So begins Jinwoo Chong's dazzling time-bending debut that blends elements of neo-noir and speculative fiction as the lives of Bo, Brandon, and Blue begin to intersect, uncovering a network of secrets and an experimental technology that threatens to upend life itself.

Couture gowns, press parties, international travel. Rachel Kim is at the top of her game. Girls Forever is now the number-one K-pop group in the world, and her fame skyrockets after her viral airport styling attracts the attention of fashion’s biggest names. Her life’s a swirl of technicolor glamour and adoring fans. Rachel can’t imagine shining any brighter.

Seventeen-year-old Bucky Yi knows nothing about his birth country of South Korea or his bio-dad's disappearance; he can't even pronounce his Korean name correctly. Running through the woods of rural Washington State with a tire tied to his waist, his sights are set on one all-American goal: to become a college football player. So when a misadventure with his adoptive family leads the US government to deport him to South Korea, he's forced to navigate an entirely foreign version of his life.

When her friends gift her a 23-and-Me test as a gag, high school senior Chloe Kang doesn’t think much of trying it out. She doesn’t believe anything will come of it—she’s an only child, her mother is an orphan, and her father died in Seoul before she was even born, and before her mother moved to Oklahoma. It’s been just Chloe and her mom her whole life. But the DNA test reveals something Chloe never expected— she’s got a whole extended family from her father’s side half a world away in Korea.