Books from South Korea

After a disturbing dream, Yonghye abruptly empties her refrigerator of all meat, embarking on a radical journey to become entirely vegetal. This profound transformation, driven by a desire to merge with the quiet existence of plants, challenges societal norms and her family's expectations. As her body and mind undergo an unsettling metamorphosis, she descends into a unique form of madness, seeking an absolute state of being.

• multiple povs

Four generations of a Korean family make a life in Japan, in a country that never quite allows them to belong. Beginning in a fishing village in Japanese-occupied Korea and ending in 1980s Tokyo, Min Jin Lee's National Book Award finalist follows Sunja, her sons and her grandson through poverty, war, and the pachinko parlours that offer Koreans in Japan one of the few available routes to a fortune.

• family saga
• coming of age
• multiple povs

Kim Jiyoung is an ordinary woman: born in Seoul in 1982, a diligent student, a competent office worker, now a wife and the mother of a small daughter, having left her job to raise her. Then she begins, without warning, to speak in the voices of other women — her own mother, a friend who has died — as though their lives are surfacing through hers. Alarmed, her husband sends her to a psychiatrist, and it is through that clinical frame that her story is told. Reconstructed as a kind of case file, the novel walks back through Kim Jiyoung's life to trace the countless small and large ways that being a woman in South Korea has shaped and constrained her: preference for sons, everyday harassment, workplace discrimination, the quiet erasure of her ambitions after marriage and motherhood. Nothing that happens to her is extraordinary, which is precisely the point. Cho Nam-ju's spare, deliberately flat novel became a cultural phenomenon and a lightning rod in South Korea's debates about gender. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 reads like sociology as much as fiction, using one unremarkable life to make an accumulated, quietly devastating case about the weight of ordinary sexism.

In May 1980, a student uprising in the South Korean city of Gwangju is crushed by the military, and a young boy searches the makeshift morgues for his missing friend. From that centre, Han Kang moves across decades and narrators — survivors, the bereaved, an editor, a prisoner, the dead — tracing how a week of state violence keeps reverberating through ordinary lives. Translated by Deborah Smith, Human Acts is a spare, harrowing meditation on grief, conscience, and memory.

• multiple povs
• dual timeline

A genre-defying collection of ten stories by South Korean writer Bora Chung, sliding between horror, science fiction, fairy tale, and social satire: a cursed rabbit-shaped lamp, a fox that bleeds gold, a pregnancy with a will of its own. Beneath their surreal, grotesque surfaces, the stories expose the real cruelties of patriarchy and capitalism. Translated by Anton Hur; shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.

In every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born--three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to control storms or flames with the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, able to ingest the deadliest poisons without harm. And Arsinoe, a naturalist, can control nature. But becoming the Queen Crowned isn't solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. And it's not just a game of win or lose ... it's life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins. The last queen standing gets the crown. --

• court intrigue
• multiple povs
• coming of age
• survival

In a town hidden inside our collective subconscious stands a department store that sells dreams, and Penny is its newest hire. Working under the owner, DallerGut, she learns to match sleeping customers — human and animal alike — with dreams made by the district's eccentric designers: childhood memories, food, flying, stardom, one more conversation with someone who has died. Miye Lee's crowdfunded debut became a #1 Korean bestseller and a cornerstone of the "healing fiction" wave.

• fish out of water
• found family

For three years, seventeen-year-old Cas Lowood has carried on his father's work of dispatching the murderous dead, traveling with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat, but everything changes when he meets Anna, a girl unlike any ghost he has faced before.

A raw, honest memoir by a young woman documenting her decade-long battle with an eating disorder and depression in Seoul — told through short essays that blend personal struggle with hope.

When a devoted mother goes missing, her children are left to piece together the life of the woman they thought they knew. As they search for her, they uncover hidden sacrifices and unspoken truths about their family. This story explores the profound impact of a mother's love and the complexities of family bonds.

• family saga
• multiple povs
• sacrifice

Dive into Bora Chung's "The Midnight Timetable," a collection of short stories that will leave you questioning reality. These tales explore the unsettling depths of human nature, where ordinary situations take a sinister turn. Prepare for a journey into the bizarre, where characters face strange circumstances and make difficult choices.

This volume continues the thrilling saga of Sung Jinwoo, a weak hunter who gains the ability to level up. As he grows stronger, he faces increasingly dangerous dungeons and powerful adversaries, all while uncovering the secrets behind his newfound abilities and the world's sudden shift. The stakes are higher than ever as Jinwoo navigates a world where strength is everything.

• chosen one

Sung Jinwoo is the weakest hunter in the world, barely strong enough to survive his low-rank dungeon raids. When he faces a deadly trap in a hidden double dungeon, he's given a unique chance to gain incredible power. Now, he must train and fight his way through increasingly dangerous monsters and dungeons to protect humanity and uncover the secrets behind his newfound abilities.

• chosen one
• reluctant hero
• quest
• survival

In 1980s South Korea, amidst political upheaval, Jung Yoon receives a call that brings back memories of her tumultuous youth. She revisits her tragic personal history, including the death of her mother, her first love, and the deep friendships formed in college. This story explores the power of connection and the impact of formative experiences during a time of great uncertainty.

• coming of age
• friends to lovers
• mentor figure

A year after joining the Dallergut Dream Department Store, Penny is now an official employee, ready to explore the Company District where dreams are produced. However, she soon discovers a darker side to the magical industry, encountering a Civil Complaint Center and learning about regulars who have stopped visiting. As Penny investigates these complaints, she begins to understand the deeper reasons behind their customers' dream choices, hoping to bring them back to the store.

• fish out of water

The wildly popular Korean novels that inspired the hit webtoon! A man who wants nothing more than to kick back and relax must use his wit and wiles to survive the fantasy novel he's fallen into. Ever dreamt of waking up inside a novel? For Kim Roksu, this dream becomes reality when he finds himself in the shoes of Cale Henituse, the lazy, wine-loving son of a count--and punching bag for the novel's destined hero. Determined to dodge his grim fate, this new Cale Henituse vows to rewrite his story, aiming for a life of leisure far from heroic deeds and inevitable beatdowns. But the path to a peaceful life is twisted by irony. As Cale plots his escape from destiny, he inadvertently gathers a motley crew of magical allies--including a haughty baby dragon and two mischievous kitten shapeshifters. Every attempt to avoid heroism entangles him further in a whirlwind of unforeseen adventures, proving that sometimes the best heroes are the ones who resist the call.

DEEP SECRETS: CAN CALE TURN THE TIDE OF FATE? When Kim Roksu mysteriously awakens inside an action-packed fantasy novel, he decides to make the most of it. Now living as the rich noble Cale Henituse, our protagonist collects flashy abilities and unexpected allies in his pursuit of a cushy life! After foiling a mad mage's terrorist plot in the capital, he travels to a coastline of vicious whirlpools to find his next Ancient Power. There, he meets siblings from the Whale Tribe who are as beautiful as they are deadly. For ages, the whales have kept their sworn enemies at bay—the bloodthirsty mermaids—but an unknown power from the depths of the Dark Forest has made their foes stronger than ever. Will the mermaids, monsters, and magic of this vibrant fantasy world be enough to derail Cale's ambitions of a luxurious, carefree future?

In a world split by the Line of Limit, four peoples share the land: humans, the bird-like Rekon, the flame-wielding Tokkebi, and the reptilian Nhaga, who surrender their hearts for near-immortality and rule the warm south. When a Nhaga is dispatched north on a secret mission, escorted by one representative from each of the northern races, the party arrives to find him murdered. To complete their charge they must press on with a hasty replacement, one who still carries his heart, binding together four beings from four worlds who have every reason not to trust one another. The opening volume of Lee Yeong-do's landmark epic fantasy The Bird That Drinks Tears, translated into English for the first time by Anton Hur, it builds an intricate, wholly original mythology rooted in Korean folklore rather than Western fantasy convention.

• quest

Imaginez un monde partagé par une frontière invisible enfouie au cœur d’une forêt profonde. La Ligne sépare les Nagas, qui renoncent à leurs cœurs pour devenir immortels, des autres peuples élus : les Rekkons, immenses hommes-coqs à la force herculéenne, les enjoués Tokkebis, capables de manipuler le feu pour créer des illusions en ammées, et les Hommes, éternellement divisés. Dans cet univers où d’immenses poissons célestes abritent des cités effondrées, où des êtres-dragons peuvent se réveiller et des serpents communiquer à distance, un jeune Naga accepte une mission dont il ignore le sens. Il va devoir traverser la Ligne et gagner les périlleux territoires du nord. Un Éclaireur, un Destructeur et un Sorcier sont désignés pour l’escorter. Mais seuls ceux qui connaissent les secrets du monde savent que ce quatuor improbable a entre les mains le destin de l’humanité. Le premier tome d’une tétralogie majeure signée Lee Young-Do, le “Tolkien coréen”, déjà célébrée par un million de lecteurs en Corée. Une œuvre fascinante jouant avec les codes de la Fantasy dans un univers empreint de références mythologiques inconnues.