Snowy Day and Other Stories
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Pre-order Now for $26.23
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
About this listen
The first story collection published in English by Lee Chang-dong, one of South Korea’s most celebrated and influential literary and cinematic figures
Much like Lee Chang-dong’s internationally renowned films (Burning, Secret Sunshine, and Poetry), these brilliant, unsettling tales, originally published in Korea in the 1980s and now translated into English for the first time, investigate themes of injustice, betrayal, and terror—on both an intimate and national scale. Lee writes deeply and hauntingly about conflicts between family, the powerful and the vulnerable, conformists and rebels.
In the title story, drawn from the author’s own memories of serving in the South Korean military, the class divide between a university-educated private and a working-class corporal serving sentry duty together one snowy night leads to tragic consequences. In “There’s a Lot of Shit in Nokcheon,” the psychological violence that two brothers enact on each other over the course of a lifetime captures the darkness and paranoia that pervaded Korea in the 1980s, as the country struggled toward democratic rule. And in the novella-length “A Lamp in the Sky,” a young woman’s brutal interrogation at the hands of the police reveals the series of increasingly troubling decisions that led her to this moment. Is she innocent or guilty? In the end, even she cannot say.
Snowy Day and Other Stories introduces English listeners to a master storyteller.
©2025 Chang-dong Lee (P)2025 Penguin AudioWhat the critics say
“Breathtaking . . . Readers already familiar with Lee's uncanny ability to create precise yet multilayered film imagery will detect that impressive skill in these pages . . . That recognition, that empathy, should turn aficionados of Lee's films into literary admirers, deservedly expanding his international presence.”—Shelf Awareness
“A stirring collection of stories about resistance. Lee Chang-dong effectively and dramatically explores the sacrifices people make to hold onto their ideals. These potent tales leave a mark.”—Publishers Weekly
“Short stories exploring South Korea on the verge of transformation. These stories abound with emotional violence that sometimes boils over into the physical, and empathetically explores characters reckoning with a lack of good options. A harrowing but clear-eyed look at South Korea’s recent history.”—Kirkus