Korean Literary Fiction

Jungmin is down on her luck. She's worked tirelessly as a screenwriter her whole life, and has finally burnt out. But after months of isolation, she realises it's time to make a change, and ventures out into the streets near Seoul. When she stumbles upon a pottery workshop, a new world opens up to her. Leaning into the joys of her craft, Jungmin’s heart is slowly warmed by the kiln’s intense heat. Everyone at the workshop has their own story to tell, and as summer ebbs to autumn, autumn to winter, winter to spring, wounds begin to heal.

In this compelling and beautifully-patterned novel, Han Kang tells the interwoven stories of a Greek instructor who is losing his sight and a woman who refuses to speak. Uniquely involving, and thoughtful, it explores the depths and limits of human connection.

A woman meets her next-door neighbor and loans her a spatula, then starts suffering horrific gaps in her memory. A man, feeling jilted by an unrequited love, becomes obsessed with sorting through his neighbors' garbage in the belief that it will teach him how to better relate to people. A landlord decides to raise the rent, and his tenants hatch a plan to kill him at a team-building retreat. In 10 captivating, unnerving stories, Flowers of Mold presents a range of ordinary individuals who have found themselves left behind by an increasingly urbanized and fragmented world.

Kim Ronyoung (Gloria Hahn, 1926-1987) tells the story of Haesu and Chun, immigrants who fled Japanese-occupied Korea for Los Angeles in the decade prior to World War II, and their American-born children. First published in 1986, Clay Walls offers a portrait of what being Korean in California meant in the first half of the twentieth century and how these immigrants’ nationalist spirit helped them withstand racism and poverty.

Seventeen-year-old Bucky Yi knows nothing about his birth country of South Korea or his bio-dad's disappearance; he can't even pronounce his Korean name correctly. Running through the woods of rural Washington State with a tire tied to his waist, his sights are set on one all-American goal: to become a college football player. So when a misadventure with his adoptive family leads the US government to deport him to South Korea, he's forced to navigate an entirely foreign version of his life.

눈덩이처럼 불어나는 엄마의 병원비가 버거워서였을까. 서현은 마주 앉은 남자의 제안에 일순 마음이 흔들렸다. 그런 그녀를 예의 무료한 눈빛으로 바라보는 남자, 최지환.

*소설 해설집 '진짜 페미니즘'을 넘어서 | 심진경 서로의 마음 가장 깊숙한 곳에 바톤터치 하듯 이어지는 너와 나, 우리 모두의 이야기 영화 홍보기획사에서 일하는 은정은 육아와 직장을 병행하는 워킹맘이다. 은정은 "세상과의 끈을 놓아버리고 '무식한 아이 엄마'로만 남지 않겠다"고 거듭 다짐하며 타인과의 감정 섞인 교류 없이 강퍅하고 완고하게 스스로를 가둬왔다. 그러나 8개월 전 그녀의 고성에도 균열이 가기 시작된다. 아들 서균이 교회 수련회에서 눈썰매를 타다 의식불명 상태에 빠진 것이다.

한국문학 최고의 유산인 박완서를 다시 읽는 「박완서 소설전집」 중 『미망』 해설집. 낭독자: 신소윤. KBS 27기 성우로 KBS 'TV유치원 파니파니'의 성우이기도 하다. '피치피치핏치'의 하음파 역, '시간을 달리는 소녀'의 카호 역, '원피스'의 뮤레 역 등 다양한 작품에 출연했으며, 특히 '피치피치핏치' 퓨어 편에서는 테마곡을 부르기도 했다.