Wow, just wow. There's something about Love in the Big City that just makes you glued to it and I read it in two sittings (I'm human, I need sleep). It also cured me of my laziness when it comes to writing book reviews. Right after finishing the last page, I feel so compelled to type out jumbled thoughts on why I love love love the book so much, hoping to make some sense of why I'm so attracted to it. Love in the Big City is Sang Young Park's English-language debut. This book has such a …
Korean (한국어)
[Review] I’m Waiting For You and Other Stories
I'm Waiting For You and Other Stories comprise of two pairs of stories from Korean science fiction writer Kim Bo-young, translated by Sophie Bowman and Sung Ryu. In the title story I'm Waiting for You (tr. Sophie Bowman), a man writes a series of letters to his fiancee, as both of them undertake their separate journeys in the galaxy, making use of the concept of relativity, to return to Earth at the same time to get married. His journey gets increasingly difficult as the delays in the galactic …
Review: Shoko’s Smile
Shoko's Smile: Stories, a collection of seven long-ish short stories, is Korean writer's Choi Eunyoung's English debut, deftly and beautifully translated by Sung Ryu. I'm only on my fourth story, but already, I'm dying to write about how much I love it. Shoko's Smile: Stories is one of those books that I want to share with everybody, but at the same time, part of me wants to keep it as a hidden gem. I see myself in all the four stories that I've read thus far, and it's taking a lot of …
Review: Almond by Sohn Won-pyung
I bought the Korean novel 아몬드 weeks ago because I was intrigued by the title and the bold cover illustration of a boy with unfeeling eyes. I love its clean cover. I am glad the publisher kept the cover plain instead of including words like "Bestseller", "No.1" etc, despite the book being already on its 90th print (first print in Mar 2017). I ended up reading the English translation first, with the same title "Almond", translated by Sandy Joosun Lee. This story is, in short, about a …
Review: Diary of a Murderer and Other Stories by Kim Young-ha
Captivating. Provoking. Mind-blowingly good. I cannot heap higher praise on this collection of 4 short stories, which is right up my alley. I love a good psychological thriller (closer to the psychotic kind) and I always feel that Korean cinema does this genre really well - think Oldboy, I saw a Devil, The Neighbours, Hide and Seek. I'm pleased to say that three of the four stories gave me the same tingling sense of trepidation and kept me on the edge throughout. Only three, as I didn't …