Gwangju, South Korea, 1980. In the wake of a viciously suppressed student uprising, a boy searches for his friend's corpse, a consciousness searches for its abandoned body, and a brutalised country searches for a voice. In a sequence of interconnected chapters the victims and the bereaved encounter censorship, denial, forgiveness and the echoing agony of the original trauma. Human Acts is a universal book, utterly modern and profoundly timeless. Already a controversial bestseller and award-winning book in Korea, it confirms Han Kang as a writer of immense importance.
How friendship, European literature, and a charismatic professor defy war, oppression, and the absurd Set in 1980s South Korea amid the tremors of political revolution, I’ll Be Right There follows Jung Yoon, a highly literate, twenty-something woman, as she recounts her tragic personal history as well as those of her three intimate college friends. When Yoon receives a distressing phone call from her ex-boyfriend after eight years of separation, memories of a tumultuous youth begin to resurface, forcing her to re-live the most intense period of her life. With profound intellectual and emotional insight, she revisits the death of her beloved mother, the strong bond with her now-dying former college professor, the excitement of her first love, and the friendships forged out of a shared sense of isolation and grief. Yoon’s formative experiences, which highlight both the fragility and force of personal connection in an era of absolute uncertainty, become immediately palpable. Shin makes the foreign and esoteric utterly familiar: her use of European literature as an interpreter of emotion and experience bridges any gaps between East and West. Love, friendship, and solitude are the same everywhere, as this book makes poignantly clear.
'Holding on to the belief that life had meaning and must go on, I, too, would carry on.' In this million-copy bestseller from Korea, the owner of a corner store takes in a homeless man who does a good deed - a kind soul whose presence will transform the whole neighbourhood. Seoul Station is home to Dokgo, a man with no memories of his past. Until one day his subdued existence is disrupted when he stumbles upon a lost wallet, triggering a chain of events that will change the course of his life. Enter Mrs. Yeom, a retired teacher turned convenience-store owner, who, upon discovering Dokgo's act of kindness in returning her purse, offers him a meal as a token of her gratitude. Their chance encounter blossoms into an unexpected alliance when the man's bravery saves the store from ruin, earning him not just a job but a place in the heart of the neighbourhood. But just when things are looking up for Dokgo, Mrs. Yeom's troubled son, eager to sell the store, hires a detective to dig into the mysterious man's past and unearth what he seems to be trying so hard to forget . . . The Second Chance Convenience Store is a moving and joyful story of a woman fighting for her community and a man who has lost everything except the will to try again. 'Dok-go's realistic and encouraging relationship with the store's customers, who have their problems and aspirations resolved so well through the pages, wins everyone's hearts' - The Korea Times
A CHARACTER AND PLOT AS ADDICTIVE AND TWISTED AS AMERICAN PSYCHO BY BRETT
EASTON ELLIS, MISERY BY STEPHEN KING AND A CLOCKWORK ORANGE BY ANTHONY
BURGESS.
Told in a brutally honest voice that at times simmers with impotent rage, Kim
Hye-jin's Concerning My Daughter taps into the complexities of mother-daughter
dynamics, but also the systemic issues and obstacles that LGBTQ communities
face in heteronormative societies.
Winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2016. A beautiful, unsettling novel in three acts, about rebellion and taboo, violence and eroticism, and the twisting metamorphosis of a soul
An eerie and absorbing novel following a criminal psychologist who has discovered shocking and possibly dangerous connections between a serial killer and her stepdaughter Criminal psychologist Seonkyeong receives an unexpected call one day. Yi Byeongdo, a serial killer whose gruesome murders shook the world, wants to be interviewed. Yi Byeongdo, who has refused to speak to anyone until now, asks specifically for her. Seonkyeong agrees out of curiosity. That same day Hayeong, her husband's eleven-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, shows up at their door after her grandparents, with whom she lived after her mother passed away, die in a sudden fire. Seonkyeong wants her to feel at home, but is gradually unnerved as the young girl says very little and acts strangely. At work and at home, Seonkyeong starts to unravel the pasts of the two new arrivals in her life and begins to see startling similarities. Hayeong looks at her the same way Yi Byeongdo does when he recounts the abuse he experienced as a child; Hayeong's serene expression masks a temper that she can't control. Plus, the story she tells about her grandparents' death, and her mother's before that, deeply troubles Seonkyeong. So much so that Yi Byeongdo picks up on it and starts giving her advice. Written with exquisite precision and persistent creepiness, The Only Child is psychological suspense at its very best.
