VOL.69/2024.04

Korean Literature in the European Publishing Market

2020.12.07

Violet

The publication rights of writer Shin Kyung-Sook's third full-length novel Violet (Munhakdongne) were sold to Weidenfeld & Nicolson in Britain in November 2020. This publisher released Please Look After Mom (Changbi) of writer Shin in April 2011, and in the following year, the writer was honored with the Man Asian Literary Prize. Violet is Shin Kyung-Sook's second full-length novel to be published in Britain after Please Look After Mom. The title "Violet" has multiple implications; it is a type of flower, a color, and a metaphor for a shy woman. And at the same time, the feeble image is naturally linked to "violence." The writer blends such various meanings embedded within the story through several illustrations and metaphors. Violet is a story of distorted desire and a rotation of all writings where the frustration of all desires and desires for writing follow one after another into the novel and then into literature. The publication rights of the book were sold in 2019 to Feminist Press. The British and American editions of Violet will be translated and published in March 2021. Writer Shin's books translated and published in the United States after Please Look After Mom are I'll Be Right There (Munhakdongne), The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness (Munhakdongne), and The Court Dancer (Munhakdongne).

While Fauster (Wisdom House), the fourth full-length novel of writer Kim Ho-Yeon, is gaining popularity in the European region, its publishing rights were sold to Germany for the first time. As people are paying greater attention to the book where the main idea was derived from Faust by German master writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, more publishers in Europe and other English-speaking regions are positively reviewing the publication. The novel, which features the breathtaking combat of an old man who manifests a young man's body to fulfill his desires and the young man who tries to protect himself, is a magnificent thriller that is a metaphor for the apocalyptic manifestation and surveillance in Korean society. A society where old people pay certain money and choose young men or women in their 20s to control their life and feel satisfaction – such relationships are traded in an underground market called the Fauster and Mephisto System. The desire of the old men in power who enjoy observing and controlling someone grows with nothing holding them back, and the young who desperately fight against them is vividly depicted in the story. While taking a keen look into the free will of human begins and the meaning of an individual, the novel is an intriguing story that has a twist at the end that would surprise readers' predictions. Referred to as an all-around storyteller, having had multiple jobs from a novelist, scenario writer, and story writer for comics, writer Kim Ho-Yeon won the 9th Segye Literary Prize (hosted by Segye Ilbo) with his full-length novel Mangwondong Brothers (Namu Bench) in 2013. Adapted into a play, Mangwondong Brothers is performed every year in theaters and is currently under film production.

Honggildongjeon (Minumsa), originally written by Heo Gyun, is a modern reinterpretation of writer Kim Takhwan, a representative storyteller in Korea. It was translated into Portuguese and published in Brazil in late November 2020. Honggildongjeon, which is the first novel written in Hanguel (Korean alphabet) and a representative classic novel in Korea, will be sold in the Portuguese market in Europe on top of Brazil. This enabled Portuguese readers worldwide to enjoy the modern version of Honggildongjeon, the classic piece to be remembered forever in Korean history. The original story is about Hong Gildong, a heroic character, who is used as the eys of the writer Heo Gyun to look at the social issues in Joseon and make sharp criticisms and show his yearning for a new society. Inside is the commonly known storyline where Hong Gildong is born as the child of a concubine and grows up being treated with contempt, but later becomes a righteous outlaw, punishes corrupt officials, helps people, and founds a country named Yuldoguk, which enjoys a reign of peace. Heo Gyun's utopia blends well with the social aspects of the Joseon Dynasty, and the story itself is a naked description of discrimination against those born from a concubine, corrupt bureaucrats, and incapable government. The book's translation and publishing rights were sold to the Turkish region in October 2020 and will soon be ready to meet local Turkish readers.

Written by Joseph Lee (President of KL Management)