Petra Ben Ari Books

Follows the aftermath of a young boy's shocking death during a violent student uprising as told from the perspectives of the event's victims and their loved ones.

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.

Sixty-five short interconnected chapters portray humanity and all its suffering and resiliency.

Podivuhodná večerka přináší příběh plný naděje, lidskosti a nečekaných setkání. V centru vyprávění stojí záhadný muž přezdívaný Tokko, který se z bezdomovce stává nočním pracovníkem v malé večerce. Přestože trpí částečnou ztrátou paměti a působí nemotorně, jeho přítomnost začne postupně měnit životy všech kolem — od sedmdesátileté majitelky obchodu přes ambiciózní studentku připravující se na úřednické zkoušky až po vyčerpaného obchodního zástupce. Za zdmi nenápadné večerky se odehrává příběh o druhých šancích, odpuštění a síle komunity. Spisovatel Kim Hojon mistrně propojuje osudy jednotlivých postav, jejich každodenní radosti i strasti a vytváří mnohovrstevnatý román, který čtenáře dokáže rozesmát i dojmout. Skrze intimní portréty obyčejných lidí odkrývá univerzální témata vykoupení, mezilidských vztahů a hledání vlastního místa ve světě.

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.

Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more 'plant-like' existence, decides to become a vegetarian, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares. In South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard-of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision is a shocking act of subversion. Her passive rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, leading her bland husband to self-justified acts of sexual sadism. His cruelties drive her towards attempted suicide and hospitalisation. She unknowingly captivates her sister's husband, a video artist. She becomes the focus of his increasingly erotic and unhinged artworks, while spiralling further and further into her fantasies of abandoning her fleshly prison and becoming - impossibly, ecstatically - a tree.Fraught, disturbing and beautiful, The Vegetarian is a novel about modern day South Korea, but also a novel about shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand others, from one imprisoned body to another.

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.