At first glance, Minyoung Kang’s new book, Plant Lady, might be mistaken for yet another addition to the Korean comfort fiction genre. After all, Shanna Tan has translated Korean novels set in bookshops, laundromats, and photo studios, to name but a few. On the cover of the US edition of Plant Lady, a young woman…
At first, Cho Yeeun’s Shift, recently translated by Yewon Jung, might be mistaken for a straight-up detective novel. Yi Chang, a police officer in a small seaside town, is searching for the leader of a mysterious cult, who claims to be able to cure any disease with his magical powers, in the hope of saving…
Histories of the Korean War (1950-1953) published in the United States have been surprisingly numerous for a conflict known as America’s “forgotten war”, but few books have appeared in English on the division and occupation of Korea by the Soviet Union and the United States (1945-48). Fewer still have focused on what happened in Korea…
North Korea has survived wars, sanctions, and isolation—to the point where it now seems that the continuation of the Kim dynasty, and a starkly divided Korea, is assured. But history is filled with events where some change might have drastically altered how a country’s development might have gone. North Korea is no different, at least…
Trauma echoes differently on the prairies. In her debut novel, Inheritance, Jane Park follows a Korean immigrant family whose father’s hidden and unspoken past shadows their Canadian-born children, unfolding not in the urban centres typical of immigrant stories, but in the stark towns of remote, rural Alberta. As the book opens, New York attorney Anne…
In the past decade, Korean entertainment has gained global recognition, with Korean movies and TV shows winning Oscars and Emmys, and K-Pop groups becoming wildly popular. In Manhattan, Koreatown has become a popular destination for both locals and tourists, drawing them in with its bars, restaurants, and day spas. Jinwon Kim argues that Manhattan’s Koreatown…
First published anonymously in March 2014 as a series of blog posts, Lady No is Kim Hyesoon’s latest collection of poetry translated into English. These posts were written during the most politically significant years of South Korea, when the ferry MV Sewol sank, killing 304 people, including 250 high school students. The event and the…
A number of female war correspondents and photographers covered the Korean War for the American media, although much of this history has faded from public consciousness. Eve J Chung resurrects the memory of these journalists in her new novel, The Young Will Remember, an engaging story that revolves around Ellie Chang, a Chinese American war…
English language children’s picture books that center around Asian folktales and themes are no longer as uncommon as they once were. Yet it’s still rare to find collections of folktales that originate from Asian countries themselves. Now David Conger, Liana Romulo, Joan Suyenaga and Marian Davies Toth have come together in Asian Folktales for Children…
Sequels seldom seem as good as the works from which they spring. Many seem to repeat the originals, simply going over the same ground in a similar way. Such is thankfully not the case with Fyodor Tertitskiy’s new book, Pyongyang on the Brink: Sixteen Crises That Shaped North Korea, his sequel to last year’s Accidental Tyrant: The…
This collection of eleven essays explores emotions and affect in Korean culture across a broad temporal span, from the Koryŏ dynasty (918–1392) to the present. Drawing on a diverse array of sources—including memoirs, diplomatic letters, newspapers, films, video diaries, photographs, and ethnographic interviews—the volume examines how emotions intervene in public discourse and how affect is…
A number of books in English have given us histories of Korean emigration to the United States and Canada, but the story of those who left Korea for Japan in the decades of Japanese imperial rule is relatively unknown. Sayaka Chatani, a professor of history at the National University of Singapore, writes in this book…
Lyrical Translation is a literary history of modern Korean poetry’s origins and its development through translation. As the use of Korean became increasingly restricted during the Japanese occupation, translation was not a choice but a necessity for higher education and intellectual labor. Yet it also had an expansive, creative function: Korean poets wielded it as…
Written 40-50 years ago during the South Korean dictatorship from the 1970s-80s, now newly-translated into English and framed by reflective essays, Kim Hyesoon’s poetry collection The Hell of That Star is a violent and grotesque testament to a censored time. Having worked as an editor during the regime, Kim is familiar with the censorship apparatus…
On April 15, 2014, the Sewol ferry departed from Incheon, bound for Jeju Island, with 476 people onboard. After receiving a distress call, authorities urged the crew to prepare for evacuation. Instead, passengers were told to stay in their cabins and wait for help. Most died waiting for rescue.