VOL.94/2026.05

New Books

 

What If You Encountered Your Own Clone One Day?

 

 

2026.05

 

 

 

Yoon, Hye-seong’s debut novel, Can Hate Be Replicated?, has been released as part of the "Short Series" by Safe House (Anjeongaok), a publisher specializing in genre fiction. Safe House is a production studio that creates and distributes stories for "fandoms" of genres such as SF, fantasy, mystery, horror, and romance. Author Yoon previously co-wrote the script for the K-drama 〈The Dream Life of Mr. Kim〉. While that drama offered a realistic and satirical portrayal of the lives of Korean office workers, Can Hate Be Replicated? explores a deeply human story of alienation, conflict, and the eventual downfall of a couple facing extreme suffering. The novel is categorized as a "Gyeong-jangpyeon," a format that can be described as a novella—a medium-length story that offers an accessible reading experience.

 

The protagonist, Su-han, lost his wife a year ago. While nursing his wife through the agonizing pain of pancreatic cancer, he found himself becoming increasingly exhausted, leading to a growing inability to empathize with her loneliness and sorrow. As she refused surgery and grew more frail by the day, Su-han was so consumed by his own suffering that he had no room left to care for her. The fragile bond between the couple spirals toward disaster following a scene Su-han accidentally witnesses: a male nurse, shirtless, tenderly washing his wife’s hair as they both laugh happily. His wife, a native of Libellaus (near Russia), struggled with the Korean language, yet she seemed to communicate well with this man. When his wife tried to explain the situation using a machine translation to her enraged husband, Su-han instead unleashed a torrent of curses and fury, shouting, “If you want to die so bad, then just die!” Shortly after, his wife passed away. When her mother took away their only son, Jey, Su-han was left utterly alone.

 

Then, one day, a package arrives under his late wife Nana’s name. Inside is RE Su-han—a clone with the exact same blood type and DNA as Su-han. It comes with a mysterious note: “You should try living with a bastard like yourself, too.”

 

The author’s imagination unfolds by peering into the "original" Su-han’s pain through the eyes of RE Su-han, the clone who carries Nana’s memories and the couple’s past happiness. Instead of the husband who was exhausted by her illness, Nana chose to clone the version of him from their youth—the time when their love was most tender and pure. What she ultimately yearned for was the love of her real husband; however, humans, fragile as they are in the face of suffering, often become trapped within their own tragedies, blinded to the pain of others. Through this unsettling encounter with RE Su-han—the "uncomfortable legacy" left behind by his late wife—Su-han experiences a profound sense of loss and remorse for what he has destroyed. Yet, through their son Jey, who had to endure the full weight of his parents' sorrow and separation, the author offers a subtle hint of hope. Even in the post-human era, it is human kindness and forgiveness that will remain the forces that sustain our lives.

 

 

 

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Written by Jung-Ah Shin (Culture Critic, Adjunct Professor, Division of Performing Arts, Baekseok Arts University)

TV documentary writer who has scripted over 400 episodes, the author is deeply interested in the intersection of cultural content and humanistic imagination. With a love for the stories of people and the world embedded in media, she believes in the power of good content to change the world. Major publications include Elderly in Media, Elderly outside Media, Living with AI, New Media and Story-doing, Cultural Content and Transmedia, and Media Literacy Education for Digital Literacy, etc.