VOL.69/2024.04

South Korea Book Exports

Hye-yung Pyun Takes One Step Closer to Global Fame

 

2017.8.18

 

Korean novelists are being continuously introduced abroad along with their top-notch work. Two novelists in particular, who already enjoy popularity in South Korea, are making their way into the global foray. They are Hye-yung Pyun and Jung-hyuk Kim. Pyun is known for her dry, meticulous sentences that show the dark underbelly of the mundane while Kim's work is sharp while upbeat.

 

ⓒ The New Yorker Logo

 

 

Short story Caring for Plants is featured in U.S.-renowned weekly magazine, The New Yorker

 

The image that was used with Caring for Plants in The New Yorker
ⓒIna Jang for The New Yorker

 

 

Hye-yung Pyun's short story Caring for Plants was recently featured in The New Yorker, a distinguished U.S. weekly that has a worldwide distribution of over 1 million copies, signaling the author's entry into the Western literary world. 
(http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/10/caring-for-plants)

Previously, only two Korean works had been featured in the magazine: Ko Un's poems and Mun-yol Yi's short stories. It is difficult for one's work to be published in The New Yorker and other authors from Europe are also aware of this.

 

 

Novel The Hole is published by Arcade Publishing

 

 

Cover Art for Pyun's The Hole published in the United States

  

Pyun's full-length novel The Hole was published on Aug. 1. Arcade Publishing was responsible for the release of Pyun's first work translated into English from Korean. The novel is the longer novel version of Caring for Plants and tells the story of the main character, Oghi, whose life is turned upside-downby a car accident that kills his wife. Oghi's emotions are well expressed, even between the scenes in the book. Pyun's first novel, Ashes and Red will also be published in English in August next year under the same publisher.

 

 

Jung-hyuk Kim's Novel Set to beReleased in Germany

 

 

Kim's Korean language cover forYour Shadow Is a Monday
ⓒ Moonji Publishing Co.

 

 

Jung-hyuk Kim's novel Your Shadow Is a Monday was recently sold into Germany. The storyis about a 'deleter' and 'deleting' as the main character acquires the help of a detective to delete all the secrets of the world. The novel addresses the selfish and secretive urges that most people harbor inside and the story is told with a narrative that is unique to Kim, providing fun and enjoyment for readers. The novel has already been translated and published in France, and is also scheduled to be published in Vietnam and China in the future.

 

 

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Written by Joseph Lee, President of KL Management