Korean Literature

Frances and Ginger Park, authors of both children's books and young adult novels, based this inspiring and deeply affecting tale on their own mother's childhood. Winner of the International Reading Association Award, My Freedom Trip features a courageous girl named Soo who makes a desperate bid for freedom by journeying from North Korea to South Korea. Her father awaits across the border, but to achieve her new life, Soo must leave her mother behind.

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.

Couture gowns, press parties, international travel. Rachel Kim is at the top of her game. Girls Forever is now the number-one K-pop group in the world, and her fame skyrockets after her viral airport styling attracts the attention of fashion’s biggest names. Her life’s a swirl of technicolor glamour and adoring fans. Rachel can’t imagine shining any brighter.

Admiral Lenson leads Operation Rupture, the invasion of South China, in a bid to finally end the war and restore peace. Meanwhile, Captain Cheryl Staurulakis fights to take a radical new “super ship” to sea, even though its power and capability may introduce more risk than reward.

대부분이 피난을 가서 텅 비어 있는 서울, 갑작스레 사상과 권력이 뒤바뀌고 이분법적 논리와 인식의 틀이 몇 안 남은 사람들의 삶도 깊이 갈라놓는다. 『목마른 계절』은 마구잡이로 뒤섞이고 무너져 내리던 혼돈 속 서울에서 1년간 벌어진 이야기를 인민군 부역을 하는 여대생 진이의 시각에서 그린 작품이다.

천재적인 피아니스트 백동우는 교통사고로 왼손에 부상을 입지만 상대편 차량의 일가족이 사망하는 참사를 목격한다. 5개월 후, 꿈의 무대로 불리는 카네기홀에 입성하나 교통사고 후유증인 국소성이긴장증이라는 경련 증상이 도져 연주를 망치고 만다.

From acclaimed poet Franny Choi comes a poetry collection for the ends of worlds—past, present, and future. Choi’s third book features poems about historical and impending apocalypses, alongside musings on our responsibilities to each other and visions for our collective survival.

One evening in downtown Seoul, Jeong-su is smoking a cigarette outside when he sees something impossible: a huge black orb appears out of nowhere and sucks his neighbor inside. Jeong-su manages to get away, but the terrifying sphere can move through walls, so he’s sure he won’t be able to hide for long. The orb soon begins consuming every person caught in its path, and no one knows how to stop it. Impervious to bullets and tanks, the orb splits and multiplies, chasing the hapless residents of Seoul out into the country and sparking a global crisis with widespread violence and looting.

Can't I Go Instead follows the lives of the daughter of a Korean nobleman and her maidservant in the early 20th century. When the daughter’s suitor is arrested as a Korean Independence activist, and she is implicated during the investigation, she is quickly forced into marriage to one of her father’s Japanese employees and shipped off to the United States. At the same time, her maidservant is sent in her mistress's place to be a comfort woman to the Japanese Imperial army.

In this Korean folktale, a greedy merchant sells the shade from his tree to a passing traveler. What he doesn’t realize, however, is just how clever this traveler is! What happens when the merchant’s ploy backfires and the traveler decides to stay in the shade?

Much like Lee Chang-dong’s internationally renowned films (Burning, Secret Sunshine, and Poetry), these brilliant, unsettling tales, originally published in Korea in the 1980s and now translated into English for the first time, investigate themes of injustice, betrayal, and terror—on both an intimate and national scale. Lee writes deeply and hauntingly about conflicts between family, the powerful and the vulnerable, conformists and rebels.

The Korean Soul: A Collection of Poems by H. C. Kim explores themes and ideas that are of importance to Koreans around the world, such as the current stand-off between South Korea and North Korea. By hearing H. C. Kim's poems, the listener will be able to see through the soul of Koreans. These poems are powerful testimonies to collective experiences of a people who boast 5,000+ years of history.

열아홉 수지는 소리를 듣지 못해도 불행하다고 느낀 적은 없다. 어렸을 때부터 엄마와 수지만 아는 수화로 완벽한 대화가 가능했고, 상상 속에서 모든 소리를 만들어 낼 수 있었으니까. 그런데 어느 날 인공 와우 수술을 받게 되면서 모든 게 달라진다. 완벽했던 침묵의 세계에서 불완전한 소음의 세계로 옮겨진 수지는 낯선 세상에 적응해 나가기 위해 새로운 발걸음을 준비한다. 눈이나 귀가 아닌 마음으로 세상을 바라보는 수지를 통해 독자들은 있는 그대로의 나 자신과 마주하는 법을 배우게 된다.

Step into the enchanting world of Korea's most beloved fairy tales, retold and expanded for a new generation. Originally collected by the renowned American scholar William Elliot Griffis, Korean Fairy Tales Revived introduces timeless stories of gods, heroes, talking animals, and spirits that have been passed down through generations.

Ian McAllister has searched the world over, hunting for that all-elusive perfect photograph. He finds it on a tourist trip to North Korea when he stumbles upon a young street kid foraging for roots. Unaware that this single act will brand him a spy and cost his freedom, Ian takes the shot. Now, he must pay the penalty.

From Sophie Kim comes the second book in the epic fantasy based on Korean mythology, an unflinching roller coaster ride of action, romance, and intricate fantasy lore.

Jackie Oh is done being your model minority. She’s tired of perfect GPAs, PSATs, SATs, all of it. Jackie longs to become a professional chef. But her Korean American parents are Ivy League corporate workaholics who would never understand her dream. Just ask her brother, Justin, who hasn’t heard from them since he was sent to Rikers Island. Jackie works at her grandparents’ Midtown Manhattan deli after school and practices French cooking techniques at night—when she should be studying.

When Eugene Kim assembles his three estranged daughters at his deathbed, he means to put them to the test. Vicious and pathetic in equal measure, he wants to test who will abject themselves for his favor—and, more importantly, his fortune. Each isolated and desperate to escape their circumstances, the sisters wrestle with the legacy of their abusive father as they attempt to imagine a future with others—colleagues, lovers, friends, family—as rage and shame courses through their blood.

Every Friday after school, 17-year-old Alice Choy and her little sister, Olivia, head to Myeongdong to sing karaoke. Back in San Francisco, when she still had friends and earthly possessions, Alice took regular singing lessons. But since their diplomat mom moved them to Seoul, her only musical outlet is vamping it up in a private karaoke booth to an audience of one: her loyal sister. Then a scout for Top10 Entertainment, one of the biggest K-pop companies, hears her and offers her a spot at their Star Academy.

North Korea's deadliest weapon is sleeper agent Song Sun Young. Married with children and living the good life in New York City, she has waited seven years to activate the mission she was trained to do: infiltrate America's financial infrastructure. She prays the call from her handlers will never come, because she loves her husband and kids and affluent New York lifestyle. But the call does come. During volatile negotiations between the White House and Pyongyang, Song is hurled back into a reality she had hoped to leave behind forever.