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- Book Review
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Who Murdered My Wife?: Ashes and Red by Pyun Hye-Young
/Republic of KoreaOCT 20 2014“There are always plenty of warning signs of danger, but when danger does befall, it always comes out of nowhere.” This epigram-like sentence opens Pyun Hye-young’s Ashes and Red, a novel on pandemics and the widespread hysteria they inspire. The protagonist is a researcher at a pharmaceutical...
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- Book Review
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Overlapping Lives Through Letters: The Eighth Room by Kim Miwol
/Republic of KoreaOCT 20 2014The protagonist of The Eighth Room is Yeong-dae, a 25-year-old who has just returned from serving in the military, but most of the story contains recollections from a notebook that belonged to Kim Ji-yeong, a woman 10 years his senior. As the Korea of the 1990s and 2000s is politically and...
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- Book Review
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The Lives of Others Are Not So Different from Our Own: Nana at Dawn by Park Hyoung-su
/Republic of KoreaOCT 23 2014The best novels depict the journey the protagonist takes to find their true self. The best novels are also sociological or anthropological studies on the characters and the world in which they live. Good novels, therefore, involve the physical or mental growth of a character, which in turn...
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- Book Review
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The Dead Teach the Living How to Survive: Zombies by Kim Junghyuk
/Republic of KoreaOCT 23 2014 -
- Book Review
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Remembering Heartache: The Valley of Parting by Lim Chulwoo
/Republic of KoreaOCT 23 2014The Valley of Parting, Lim Chulwoo’s first novel in six years, takes its name from Byeoreogok Station, a flag stop in the hills of Gangwon-do (province). Starting with “Autumn,” followed by “Winter,” “Summer,” and “Spring,” the four chapters of The Valley of Parting are narrated, respectively,...
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- Book Review
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Welcome to a 5-Dimensional World: Baron Quirval’s Castle by Choi Jae-hoon
/Republic of KoreaOCT 23 2014Readers will find many familiar literary works in Choi Jae-hoon’s first short story collection, such as Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. In his new book Baron Quirval’s Castle, readers may feel familiar as if they have already come across the story in a previous...
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- Book Review
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The Remains of Civilization, the Aftermath: Wolf's Word by Kim Ujine
/Republic of KoreaOCT 20 2014Wolf's Word by the young twenty-something author Kim Ujine who debuted in 2004, is a debut collection of nine short stories starting with the author's first published story as well as the title piece of the compilation, “Wolf 's Word,” and others like “Settlers of the Light,” “Witch,” and “...
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- Book Review
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To Understand an Artist: The Washing Place by Yi Kyoung-Ja
/Republic of KoreaOCT 20 2014Park Su-geun's oil painting, “The Washing Place,” gained a lot of attention in 2007 when it sold for a record 4.5 billion won at a Korean art auction. Shortly thereafter, while undergoing intense attacks as to its authenticity, it the painting once again became a hot topic of conversation....
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- Book Review
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The Road to Our Paradise: Your Paradise by Yi Chong-Jun
/Republic of KoreaNOV 02 2014Your Paradise is a work based on a true story that took place on a little island in Korea in the 1960s. Perhaps because of the continual rift between what is “normal” and “abnormal,” and between “mainland” and “island,” the book remains popular. Your Paradise, published in 1976 and reprinted...
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- Book Review
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Leaving One City in Search of Another: What Makes Up a City? by Park Seongwon
/Republic of KoreaOCT 20 2014The eight short stories in What Makes Up a City? a collection of short stories by Park Seongwon, are remarkable in that they are a part of a serial novel, with titles ranging from “We Are Running, to Wonderland” and “To Ulan Bator in a Camping Car,” to “What Makes Up a City?” A serial novel, of...