The culture of listening is reemerging amid the expansion of podcasts, social audio platforms, and audio content subscription services. Could this be because of easy access to the content in our daily life? The audiobook market is rapidly growing around the world, as audiobooks lower the threshold of reading to the current trend of audio and video over prints. Since 2015, the Digital Library of Korean Literature has provided audiobook services, keeping about sixty audiobooks in the library collection. The Digital Library of Korean Literature members can check out these audiobooks at any time. Now the Digital Library of Korean Literature presents a list of the five most popular audiobooks for the first two months of 2022 in its third part of the themes Series. Five full-length novels are on the list, including Kim JI-young, Born 1982, which has attracted constant attention.

Author Cho Nam-ju
Translator Jamie Chang
Publisher Simon & Schuster UK
Year of Publication 2020
Originally published in Korea by minumsa Publishers in 2016.

Born in 1982, Kim Ji-young is an ordinary, married woman, who is raising a daughter. One day, she suddenly starts to show signs of a mental disorder and decides to consult a psychiatrist. However, these consultations reveal multiple forms of social discrimination against women. Because this book was published when the feminist movement was in full swing in Korea, it created a great sensation in the country. The book illustrates various situations that an ordinary woman may experience in her daily life, drawing public attention to the issue of feminism.

Author Lee Miye
Translator Mikheesku Lyudmila
Publisher SelfPub
Year of Publication 2021
Originally published in Korea by SAM&PARKERS Publishers in 2020.

In a village you can enter only when you fall asleep, Dallergut Dream Department Store sells all kinds of dreams. In this hot spot, the store owner, Dallergut; an employee, Penny; and the dream creator, Agnep Coco weave episodes together into a great story. It’s a fantasy novel seeking to answer the question about whether dream creators, sellers, and buyers can exchange dreams that only exist in people’s subconsciousness. After becoming a big hit on an e-book platform, the story was released as a paper book in response to readers’ vehement requests.

Author Han Kang
Translator Deborah Smith
Publisher Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Year of Publication 2017
Originally published in Korea by Changbi Publishers in 2014.

Human Acts gives an account of the Gwangju Democratic Uprising that happened in May 1980 and the details about the survivors. Dong-ho, a middle school student, is deeply tormented over the death of his friend, Jeong-dae; other survivors also consider being alive as a disgrace, feeling so helpless that they can’t go back to their normal life. Later, Dong-ho is killed during a fight against the martial law forces. The book elaborately embodies the pain of Dong-ho and people around him by using historical evidence and newsgathering. The book won the Italian Malaparte Prize in 2017.

Author Kwon Yeo-sun
Translator Mikheesku Lyudmila
Publisher ACT
Year of Publication 2021
Originally published in Korea by Changbi Publishers in 2019.

In the summer of 2002, when the FIFA Korea-Japan World Cup sent the entire country into a frenzy of excitement, a high school girl was murdered. The story observes the lives of people involved in the murder case and the death that couldn’t be properly mourned. Hae-on, an eighteen-year-old high school girl was found dead in a park. Seventeen years have passed, but the perpetrator has not been caught. At that time, Da-on was sixteen years old and regarded her sister’s death as a kind of destruction of a beautiful form. Yet, as time passes, she undergoes perceptual changes. Through this story, the writer questions the existence of God and the meaning of life and death.

Author Lee Min Jin
Translator -
Publisher W F Howes
Year of Publication 2018
Originally published in Korea by ImageBOX Publishers in 2008.

Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee depicts the conflicts, worries, and challenges of three Korean Americans: Casey, Leah, and Ella. Unlike their parents, who went through a lot of hardships in the early days of their immigration to the US, these young girls have graduated from colleges and are getting ready to blend into American society. However, they find racial and ethnic issues to still be major obstacles. The story illuminates each individual, who, unable to find their identity as a Korean American, struggles to survive their reality.