Indie publishers Honford Star certainly haven’t been afraid to try something a little different with their list, and some of their recent Korean fiction, such as Bora Chung’s collections and Bae Myung-hoon’s speculative works, have taken readers on quite a ride.  In the same vein, the latest Honford Star offering continues to take risks, as we enjoy a bizarre day-trip to a place where things aren’t quite as they seem.  Oh, and after this one, I’m not sure you’ll ever look at jelly in quite the same way again… ***** Cho Yeeun’s The New Seoul Park Jelly Massacre (translated by Yewon Ju ..read more

If you’ve been paying attention to my little blog recently, you may have noticed a trend developing, namely one of switching between books longlisted for this year’s International Booker Prize and some that were eligible but didn’t make the cut.  In most cases, it’s the ones that missed out that have taken my fancy, and that’s certainly true of today’s choice, another excellent work that would certainly have been a better fit than a few other books I could mention (and have mentioned…).  Sadly, that’s not the case, but in an ideal world, this is one that might have been presented to ..read more

Books set in North Korea are always intriguing, especially to someone like me with an interest in Korean literature, so when I heard that a collection of stories from one of the country’s classic writers was coming out, I was keen to take a look.  Fortunately, the kind people over at Columbia University Press, as is frequently the case, were happy to send me a copy, and I’m very glad they did, too .  It’s an excellent set of stories, with some offering fascinating glimpses into the early days of the socialist state, and of the people who worked so hard to create it. ***** Ch’oe Myŏng ..read more

While it’s early days in this International Booker Prize season, I’ve already been rather busy on the blog.  After announcing this year’s Shadow Panel, and then subjecting you to my laughable ‘predictions’, I summarised the longlist announcement and then shared what we all had to say about it.  Which means it must be time to get to work on the longlisted books… …or it will be once I get my hands on them!  In the meantime, as is customary, I’ll be recapping my thoughts on the four longlisters I’ve already tried.  Here then, with links to my full reviews, are the first two, o ..read more

I’m always keen to try new Korean fiction, but it’s not often that it seeks me out.  Today’s choice, however, is a book I’d never heard of until I was asked to take a look – which is an option that won’t be open to many of you as it hasn’t actually been picked up by an Anglophone publisher yet.  This, of course, begs the question as to how I came to be asked to give my views on the book, and I promise I’ll get to that later, but let’s take this one step at a time and first introduce ourselves to the star of the show – a hard-working woman with a rather unique work-life balance proble ..read more

While Honford Star have spread their range a little over the past few years, Korean fiction is still at the heart of their work, and today sees me looking at another of their books from that country.  It’s an intriguing story with a secret at its heart involving drama, Karl Marx and several people hiding away from the unexpected consequences of literary discussions.  We’re heading off to Seoul again, then, via Jeju Island and Algiers, where the ghosts of the past still haunt the lives of many characters today… ***** Hwang Yeo Jung’s The Specters of Algeria (translated by Yewon Jung ..read more

I’m a big fan of Yū Miri’s work, and regular readers may recall how annoyed I was when Tokyo Ueno Station was scandalously overlooked for the International Booker Prize longlist several years back.  Having championed that book at every opportunity, I was keen to try the latest one in English, but I put it off for a while as it was a bit pricey, what with postage being exorbitant these days.  That’s when an online friend made an incredibly generous gesture, offering to send a copy my way, and I recently received it in the post – and what a book it is.  It’s an epic in every way ..read more

Today’s choice is a book I’ve been looking forward to for a good while, but given I didn’t receive a review copy (and was reluctant to splash out on the pricey hardback), I was waiting for a paperback release.  However, while browsing the library database, as you do, I noticed that my local branch had a copy, and I picked it up about a week ago (along with a host of other books I’ll be posting on over the next month or so…).  This one’s by a certain Korean writer you may have heard of, and it’s a book that adds to her growing body of work in English, all of it excellent.  It’s t ..read more

After a slightly disturbing stay in Iceland, we’re off on our next Women in Translation Month (#WITMonth) adventure, this time heading off to Korea for another (sadly) traumatic experience.  We’re going back to school, albeit one with a difference, but as you’ll see, there’s little of use being taught here.  Instead, the students are struggling to stay out of harm’s way, while the teachers, well – that’s who the students are running from… ***** Gong Ji-young’s Togani (translated by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton, review copy courtesy of University of Hawai’i Press) is a novel based on even ..read more

When I first started engaging with Korean literature around a decade ago, most of what I found was rather grim and serious.  If it wasn’t tales of atrocities during the colonial era, it was stories of exploitation of the common folk set against the backdrop of the post-war rebuilding process.  However, with greater success and exposure in the Anglosphere has come a wider variety of works in a number of genres, including SFF, and today’s choice sees us introduced to a big name in that field.  It’s a story that races by in a flash, but still manages to pack in a lot about how the ..read more