INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER * NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER
INDIE NEXT PICK * Debutiful Most Anticipated Book of 2024 * Powell's Pick of the Month * A Bookshop Best Book of the Year So Far

The Korean smash hit available for the first time in English, a slice-of-life novel for readers of Matt Haig's The Midnight Library and Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of AJ Fikry.

Yeongju is burned out. She did everything she was supposed to: go to school, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. In a leap of faith, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop. In a quaint neighborhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and her customers take refuge. From the lonely barista to the unhappily married coffee roaster-and the writer who sees something special in Yeongju-they all have disappointments in their past. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop becomes the place where they all learn how to truly live.

A heartwarming story about finding acceptance in your life and the healing power of books, Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop is a gentle reminder that it's never too late to scrap the plot and start again.

A millennial turned magical girl must combat climate change and credit card debt in this delightful, witty, and wildly imaginative ode to magical girl manga.

Twenty-nine, depressed, and drowning in credit card debt after losing her job during the pandemic, a millennial woman decides to end her troubles by jumping off Seoul's Mapo Bridge.

But her suicide attempt is interrupted by a girl dressed all in white--her guardian angel. Ah Roa is a clairvoyant magical girl on a mission to find the greatest magical girl of all time. And our protagonist just may be that special someone.

But the young woman's initial excitement turns to frustration when she learns being a magical girl in real life is much different than how it's portrayed in stories. It isn't just destiny--it's work. Magical girls go to job fairs, join trade unions, attend classes. And for this magical girl there are no special powers and no great perks, and despite being magical, she still battles with low self-esteem. Her magic wand . . . is a credit card--which she must use to defeat a terrifying threat that isn't a monster or an intergalactic war. It's global climate change. Because magical girls need to think about sustainability, too.

Park Seolyeon reimagines classic fantasy tropes in a novel that explores real-world challenges that are both deeply personal and universal: the search for meaning and the desire to do good in a world that feels like it's ending. A fun, fast-paced, and enchanting narrative that sparkles thanks to award-nominated translator Anton Hur, A Magical Girl Retires reminds us that we are all magical girls--that fighting evil by moonlight and winning love by daylight can be anyone's game.

Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur

INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER * NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER
INDIE NEXT PICK * Debutiful Most Anticipated Book of 2024 * Powell's Pick of the Month * A Bookshop Best Book of the Year So Far

The Korean smash hit available for the first time in English, a slice-of-life novel for readers of Matt Haig's The Midnight Library and Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of AJ Fikry.

Yeongju is burned out. She did everything she was supposed to: go to school, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. In a leap of faith, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop. In a quaint neighborhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and her customers take refuge. From the lonely barista to the unhappily married coffee roaster-and the writer who sees something special in Yeongju-they all have disappointments in their past. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop becomes the place where they all learn how to truly live.

A heartwarming story about finding acceptance in your life and the healing power of books, Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop is a gentle reminder that it's never too late to scrap the plot and start again.

By Man Asian Literary Prize winner Kyung-Sook Shin, a moving delve into a lonely psyche that follows a neglected young woman's search for human connection in contemporary Seoul (YZ Chin).

San is twenty-two and alone when she happens upon a job at a flower shop in Seoul's bustling city center. Haunted by childhood rejection, she stumbles through life--painfully vulnerable, stifled, and unsure. She barely registers to others, especially by the ruthless standards of 1990s South Korea.

Over the course of one hazy, volatile summer, San meets a curious cast of characters: the nonspeaking shop owner, a brash coworker, quiet farmers, and aggressive customers. Fueled by a quiet desperation to jump-start her life, she plunges headfirst into obsession with a passing magazine photographer.

In Violets, best-selling author Kyung-Sook Shin explores misogyny, erasure, and repressed desire, as San desperately searches for both autonomy and attachment in the unforgiving reality of contemporary Korean society.

From prize-winning Korean author Kim Hye-jin comes the contemplative, superbly-crafted story of a woman scapegoated by sudden tragedy, and the unexpected paths she must wander in search of redemption.

Haesoo is a successful therapist and regular guest on a popular TV program. But when she makes a scripted negative comment about a public figure who later commits suicide, she finds herself ostracized by friends, fired from her job, and her marriage begins to unravel. These details come to the reader gradually, in meditative prose, through bits and pieces of letters that Haesoo writes and finally abandons as she walks alone through her city.

One day she has an unexpected encounter with Sei, a 10-year-old girl attempting to feed an orange cat. Stray cats seem to be everywhere; they have the concern of one other neighborhood woman and the ire of everyone else. Like Haesoo and Sei, the cats endure various insults and recover slowly. Haesoo, who would not otherwise care about animals or form relationships with children, now finds herself pulled back by degrees into the larger world.

Daejeon, South Korea. 1980. At twenty-four, Insuk falls in love with her college classmate, Sungho, and with her father's blessing, they marry. But then, as the military dictatorship, martial law, and nationwide protests bring the country precariously to the edge, Insuk's father disappears.

In the wake of his disappearance, Insuk flees to California with Sungho, their son Henry, and Sungho's overbearing mother. Adrift in a new country, Insuk grieves the loss of her past and divided homeland, only to find herself drawn into an illicit affair that sets into motion dramatic events that will echo for generations to come.

Spanning two continents and four generations, E. J. Koh's debut novel exquisitely captures two Korean families forever changed by fateful decisions made in love and war. Extraordinarily beautiful and deeply moving, The Liberators is an elegantly wrought family saga of memory, trauma, and empathy, and a stunning testament to the consequences and fortunes of inheritance.

Prize-winning Korean author Kim Hye-Jin's debut confronts familial love, duty, mortality, and generational schism through the incendiary gaze of a tradition-bound mother faced with her daughter's queer relationship.

When a widowed, aging mother allows Green, her thirty-something daughter, to move into her apartment, all she wants for her is a stable and quiet existence like her own. Ideally, a steady income and, most importantly, a good husband with whom to start a family.

But when Green turns up with her long-term girlfriend in tow, her mother is enraged and unwilling to welcome their relationship into her home. Having centered her life on her husband and child, her daughter's definition of family is not one she can accept. Green's involvement in a campus protest against unfair dismissals of gay colleagues throws her into deeper shambles.

Meanwhile, the nursing home where she works insists that she lower her standard of care for Jen, an elderly dementia patient who traveled the world as a successful diplomat, chose not to have children, and has no family. Outraged, Green's mother begins to reconsider the unfair consequences of choosing one's own path.

With bracing honesty, Kim Hye-jin taps into the complexities of mother-daughter dynamics while unearthing the mechanisms of violence that target LGBTQ communities in traditional societies. Elegantly translated from the Korean by Jamie Chang, Concerning My Daughter shines a light on all facets of familial love and conflict.

In a country called Town, a doctor named Su is found dead in an abandoned car. There is only one place the police intend to look for her suspected killer: the Saha Estates.

Controlled by a secretive organization of ministers, Town is the safest, richest nation in the world. But it is a society clearly divided into the haves and have-nots, and those who have the very least--who aren't even considered citizens--live on the Saha Estates. Residents of Saha must squat in moldy units without plumbing or electricity and can only find work doing harsh labor. For many, the apartment complex is a bleak haven for escaping even bleaker pasts--as it was for Jin-kyung and her brother, Do-Kyung, who showed up one day sopping wet and shivering.

No one is shocked when a lowlife like Do-Kyung becomes the main suspect in Su's--a citizen's--murder. But then Do-Kyung disappears. Isolated in a barren Saha unit, Jin-Kyung makes a choice: she will finally confront a system hellbent on erasing her brother's existence. To find him, she must rely on her tightlipped neighbors, from the mysterious janitor known as Old Man, to Granny Konnim, the community gardener and reluctant midwife, to Woomi, an unwitting test subject at the local clinic. On her quest for the truth, Jin-kyung will uncover a reality far darker than she could have imagined.

Written in Cho Nam-Joo's signature sharp prose, brilliantly translated by Jamie Chang, Saha is a chilling portrait of what happens when we finally unmask our oppressors.

[This edition has been specially adapted for young readers.] Step into the enchanting realm of The Nine Cloud Dream, a literary gem by Kim Man-jung (1637-1692) that has captivated readers for centuries. This classic Korean novel, set against the backdrop of 8th century East Asia, masterfully intertwines themes of love, ambition, and enlightenment, inviting readers on a profound journey through nine fantastical realms.

Follow the story of Seong-jin, a young monk living on the sacred Lotus Peak, who succumbs to the temptation of eight fairy maidens. Because of doubting his master's Buddhist teachings, Seong-jin endures a strange and transformative punishment, which leads him through a series of adventures that challenge his understanding of reality and desire.

Timeless Messages for Today's Youth

Beyond its captivating storyline, The Nine Cloud Dream seamlessly blends Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist teachings, offering readers a chance to re-evaluate their understanding of fulfillment and success. The universal themes resonate across time and culture, providing valuable insights for modern readers on their journey towards true enlightenment.

In a country called Town, a doctor named Su is found dead in an abandoned car. There is only one place the police intend to look for her suspected killer: the Saha Estates.

Controlled by a secretive organization of ministers, Town is the safest, richest nation in the world. But it is a society clearly divided into the haves and have-nots, and those who have the very least--who aren't even considered citizens--live on the Saha Estates. Residents of Saha must squat in moldy units without plumbing or electricity and can only find work doing harsh labor. For many, the apartment complex is a bleak haven for escaping even bleaker pasts--as it was for Jin-kyung and her brother, Do-Kyung, who showed up one day sopping wet and shivering.

No one is shocked when a lowlife like Do-Kyung becomes the main suspect in Su's--a citizen's--murder. But then Do-Kyung disappears. Isolated in a barren Saha unit, Jin-Kyung makes a choice: she will finally confront a system hellbent on erasing her brother's existence. To find him, she must rely on her tightlipped neighbors, from the mysterious janitor known as Old Man, to Granny Konnim, the community gardener and reluctant midwife, to Woomi, an unwitting test subject at the local clinic. On her quest for the truth, Jin-kyung will uncover a reality far darker than she could have imagined.

Written in Cho Nam-Joo's signature sharp prose, brilliantly translated by Jamie Chang, Saha is a chilling portrait of what happens when we finally unmask our oppressors.

From the author and translator of the National Book Award finalist and Booker Prize shortlisted Cursed Bunny, comes a new novel-in-ghost-stories, set in a mysterious research center that houses cursed objects, where those who open the wrong door might find it's disappeared behind them, or that the echoing footsteps they're running from are their own...

The acclaimed Korean horror and sci-fi writer's goosebump-inducing new book follows an employee on the night shift at the Institute. They soon learn why some employees don't last long at the center. The handkerchief in Room 302 once belonged to the late mother of two sons, whose rivalry imbues the handkerchief with undue power and unravels those around it. The cursed sneaker down the hall is stolen by a live-streaming, ghost-chasing employee, who later finds he can't escape its tread. A cat in Room 206 reveals the crimes of its former family, trying to understand its own path to the Institute's halls.

But Chung's haunted institute isn't just a chilling place to play. As in her astounding collections Cursed Bunny and Your Utopia, these violent allegories take on the horrors of animal testing, conversion therapy, domestic abuse, and late-stage capitalism. Equal parts bone-chilling, wryly funny, and deeply political, Midnight Timetable is a masterful work of literary horror from one of our time's greatest imaginations.

An instant bestseller in Korea and the follow up to the international bestseller, Please Look After Mom; centering on a woman's efforts to reconnect with her aging father, uncovering long-held family secrets.

Two years after losing her daughter in a tragic accident, Hon finally returns to her home in the countryside to take care of her father. At first, her father only appears withdrawn and fragile, an aging man, awkward but kind around his own daughter. Then, after stumbling upon a chest of letters, Hon discovers the truth of her father's past and reconstructs her own family history.

Consumed with her own grief, Hon had been blind to her father's vulnerability and her family's fragility. Unraveling secret after secret and thanks to conversations with loving family and friends, Hon grows closer to her father, who proves to be more complex than she ever gave him credit for. After living through one of the most tumultuous times in Korean history, her father's life was once vibrant and ambitious, but spiraled during the postwar years. Now, after years of emotional isolation, Hon learns the whole truth, from her father's affair and involvement in a religious sect, to the dynamic lives of her own siblings, to her family's financial hardships.

What Hon uncovers about her father builds towards her understanding of the great scope of his sacrifice and heroism, and of his generation as a whole. More than just the portrait of a single man, I Went to See My Father opens a window onto humankind, family, loss, and war. With this long-awaited follow-up to Please Look After Mom--flawlessly rendered by award-winning translator Anton Hur--Kyung-Sook Shin has crafted an ambitious, global, epic, and lasting novel.

Kang Kyeong-ae (1906-1944) was a Korean writer whose stories are remarkable for their rejection of colonialism, patriarchy, and ethnic nationalism during a period when such views were truly radical and dangerous. Born in what is now North Korea, Kang wrote all her fiction in Manchuria during the Japanese occupation and witnessed the violence and daily struggles experienced by ethnic Koreans living in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Kang's riveting stories are full of sensitivity, defiance, and a deep understanding of the oppressed people she wrote about.

This collection, beautifully translated by Anton Hur, contains all the Korean-language short stories by Kang Kyeong-ae. Sang-kyung Lee's excellent introduction provides deep insight into Kang's achievements and the social and historical contexts in which she wrote.

Korean writer Ch'oe Myŏngik was a lifelong resident of Pyongyang, a city his short stories masterfully evoke in exquisite modernist prose. His career spanned decades of tumult, from his debut in the 1930s while Korea was under Japanese colonial rule through the Asia-Pacific and Korean Wars and the early years of the Democratic People's Republic. As Pyongyang transformed from Korea's second city, peripheral to the Seoul-centered literary scene, into a socialist capital in the late 1940s, Ch'oe briefly ascended to the center of North Korean culture. Despite the vitality and originality of Ch'oe's writing, Cold War politics and censorship, including South Korea's anticommunist laws, consigned his work to obscurity.

Patterns of the Heart and Other Stories presents a selection of Ch'oe's short fiction in translation, including later works from hard-to-find North Korean publications. These cinematic, keenly observed tales explore Pyongyang in meticulous detail, depicting the city's transformations and the conflicts between old and new. They pay close attention to the lives of the disaffected and the marginalized: a drifter confronts a former revolutionary dying of opium addiction; a sex worker is trafficked across the border aboard a train, amid the indifference of her fellow passengers. Later stories provide a striking glimpse of the Korean War--the occupation of Pyongyang, U.S. fighter jets bombing civilian refugees, guerrilla heroics--from a North Korean perspective. Hidden treasures of world literature, these stories offer new perspectives on Korea's turbulent twentieth century, across political divides still in place today.

Good books, books you want to write, books you need, books you sell

Why are we tickled by the word 'writer'?

Pretend Author by Lee Gim-mi: A Metafiction Unraveling the Intricate Tapestry of Contents, Reality, and the Writer's Journey

No one is ashamed to say that you are a reader. However, when someone hears the word writer, it is customary to swipe their hands once. Why are we tickled by the word writer? As a 30-year-old reader, who has taken the step of writing, novelist Lee Kim-mi has honestly solved her concerns about books in her thought-provoking metafiction, Pretend Author.

In this multi-layered narrative, Lee Kim-mi explores the intricate tapestry of literature, reality, and the writer's journey through the lens of her fictional counterpart, novelist Kim Park Chae, and the imaginary critics Park Jung-woo and Choi Jeon-young who exchange swords of criticism surrounding his work. Set against the backdrop of contemporary Korean society and its unique economic challenges, Pretend Author offers a fresh perspective on the global phenomenon of self-help gurus and motivational speakers, while also delving into the fundamental questions of what constitutes a book and the creative act itself.

Through the sharp questioning and heated debates unfolding in this inventive structure, Lee Kim-mi confronts the universal concerns of everyone who is on the path of creation today, grappling with issues such as commerciality, artistry, and popular writing. The book fearlessly questions the ethics of representation, the commodification of literature, and the authentic voice of the writer in an era where success is often measured by sales figures and social media buzz.

With its sharp wit, introspective depth, and bold experimentation, Pretend Author stands as a testament to Lee Kim-mi's unwavering commitment to her craft. The book's empirical research, including in-depth interviews shedding light on the lived experiences and emotional struggles of young people navigating this landscape, humanizes the issue and provides a relatable entry point for readers across the globe.

For anyone who has ever dreamed of writing a book, Pretend Author offers a raw and honest portrayal of the writer's life, reminding us that the path to literary success is paved with ramen packets, rejection letters, and the unshakable belief in the power of the written word. This thought-provoking and accessibly written social commentary is sure to attract a broad audience of general readers, beyond just academics, who are interested in exploring the narratives of individualism, meritocracy, and self-optimization that pervade capitalist societies, while examining the human toll and alternative paths forward.

Korean writer Ch'oe Myŏngik was a lifelong resident of Pyongyang, a city his short stories masterfully evoke in exquisite modernist prose. His career spanned decades of tumult, from his debut in the 1930s while Korea was under Japanese colonial rule through the Asia-Pacific and Korean Wars and the early years of the Democratic People's Republic. As Pyongyang transformed from Korea's second city, peripheral to the Seoul-centered literary scene, into a socialist capital in the late 1940s, Ch'oe briefly ascended to the center of North Korean culture. Despite the vitality and originality of Ch'oe's writing, Cold War politics and censorship, including South Korea's anticommunist laws, consigned his work to obscurity.

Patterns of the Heart and Other Stories presents a selection of Ch'oe's short fiction in translation, including later works from hard-to-find North Korean publications. These cinematic, keenly observed tales explore Pyongyang in meticulous detail, depicting the city's transformations and the conflicts between old and new. They pay close attention to the lives of the disaffected and the marginalized: a drifter confronts a former revolutionary dying of opium addiction; a sex worker is trafficked across the border aboard a train, amid the indifference of her fellow passengers. Later stories provide a striking glimpse of the Korean War--the occupation of Pyongyang, U.S. fighter jets bombing civilian refugees, guerrilla heroics--from a North Korean perspective. Hidden treasures of world literature, these stories offer new perspectives on Korea's turbulent twentieth century, across political divides still in place today.

The dawn still comes even if the rooster dies.

A haunting, nerve-wracking tale set in the eerie landscape of the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ). -BestThrillers

An American soldier's life spirals out of control after he makes a fateful discovery on the Korean DMZ and then falls in love with a beautiful brothel courtesan whose tragic past becomes entwined in a volatile confrontation with Communist North Korea.

It's the 1960s, the Vietnam conflict is raging, and a delicate Korean armistice threatens to fall apart at the world's most dangerous border, pushing the US toward the brink of another war in Asia. With his life in danger, GI Eddie Profar must decide if he should reveal his startling secret, which has already caused the deaths of two people. His infantry sidekick, the weed-smoking Korean-Russian eccentric Yevgeny Lee, believes he has the answer to the diplomatic crisis.

Together, the two soldiers become reluctantly entangled with a sinister sex trafficker, a corrupt government-sanctioned red-light district, and a mysterious madame whose retribution for past wrongs may have international consequences.

To complicate matters, a man-eating 500 lb. Siberian tiger is on the prowl, who believes everyone is trespassing on her land.

From the award-winning author of The Gopher King and Ashes in Venice comes this psychological military saga of enduring love and fate set against the controversial and fragile aftermath of the Korean War.