The Soyo Workshop is a pottery studio outside of Seoul that takes its name from the words for wedging clay and firing clay in a kiln. Yeon Somin has set her second novel, The Healing Season of Pottery, in the Soyo Workshop and the quaint neighborhood where it’s situated. Similar in structure and tone to Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop and other comfort novels, the familiar coffee and cats are placed with a pottery studio that is new and different.
Jungmin is a television writer who one day stands up and leaves her job without warning. She has a breakdown of sorts: she worries that she’s single, thirty, and unsure of what to do with her life. She leaves the bustle of Seoul for the quiet of Ilsan and finds an apartment in a residential neighborhood. Even with a change of scenery, she can’t stop agonizing about her future. She goes into a deep depression and holes up in her new apartment. One day she decides to go out and look for a cup of coffee, figuring a visit to a cozy café would cheer her up.
She caught sight of a shop without a sign, which looked to be a café. One wall was ceiling-to-floor glass, but you couldn’t see inside because of the endless potted plants blocking the view. It looked like the witch’s house from one of the Western fairytales she’d read as a child. Most of the plants were cacti, and all their spines were razor-sharp. She’d never noticed this shop before. Trying her best to see this as one more challenge, she went inside.
It’s probably unnecessary to mention that she in fact did not enter a café, but a pottery studio. Jungmin knows nothing about pottery, but is drawn into the inviting interior and the smell of the clay. Two women look up from their wheels and speak to Jungmin as if she were already a part of the studio. The older of the two women brews her a cup of coffee and mentions that next time she’ll serve a sweeter coffee. Jungmin is taken aback to hear the words “next time” and at first wonders if they simply mean to serve her coffee again.
When she sips from her iced black coffee, she enjoys all the different flavors and asks the women about the source of the coffee. They explain that it tastes good not just because of the beans, but also because of the coffee mug, a mug that was made in the pottery studio.
As impossible as it may have seemed, the two women’s words were strangely persuasive. Maybe rather than beans, there really is a secret inside this vessel, Jungmin thought, as she gripped the cup tight in two hands. Though it was of course full of ice, she was sure she could feel the 1,250-degree heat.
Intrigued, Jungmin asks the women if any of the pottery is for sale. They point her to the part of the studio with shelves of pottery for sale. By the time Jungmin leaves, the women talk her into taking pottery lessons at the studio twice a week. As she gets to know the other potters at the studio, Jungmin learns about one student in particular, a man named Gisik. She’s told to wear Gisik’s apron because he’s not at the studio when she’s there for her lessons. As Jungmin reaches into the pocket of Gisik’s apron and pulls out a ring, she wonders if he’s missing the ring and getting into trouble for not wearing it.
The other characters in the studio almost fade into the background as Jungmin meets Gisik and their friendship develops. He has a girlfriend, but it’s still pretty obvious that Jungmin and Gisik will end up together. Gisik dreams of opening his own pottery studio and Jungmin wants to devote her time to writing a novel. In the end, Jungmin finds happiness wherever she turns and realizes she has found her purpose in life, all thanks to the pottery studio.