Korean Archives - Page 5 of 13

Readymade Bodhisattva: The Kaya Anthology of South Korean Science Fiction, edited by Sunyoung Park and Sang Joon Park [in Booklist]

*STARRED REVIEW Science fiction in Korea is relatively new, initially imported from the West via early-20th-century translations. By the late-1950s, the rapid modernization of postwar South Korea proffered considerable fodder for sf-writer wannabes. Over the following decades, Korea’s ongoing political, socioeconomic, and technological reinventions created fertile...

Princess Bari by Sok-yong Hwang, translated by Sora Kim-Russell [in Booklist]

18 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Because she was the seventh daughter, Princess Bari – whose name means “abandoned” – was discarded as a baby only to return in triumph to save the world. Like her mythic Korean namesake, Bari is the unwanted seventh girl in a house desperate for sons....

Five More to Go: Lisa See’s The Island of Sea Women [in The Booklist Reader]

06 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Indian American, Japanese, Korean, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian American, Translation

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See Known for her Chinese and Chinese American sagas, mega-bestselling author Lisa See (The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, 2017) travels across the Yellow Sea to the tiny southern Korean island of Jeju to create a stupendous multi-generational family saga...

When Spring Comes to the DMZ by Uk-Bae Lee, translated by Chungyon Won and Aileen Won [in Shelf Awareness]

30 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

When the Korean peninsula was divided into North and South in 1953, the consequences were especially tragic for separated families. In the six-plus decades since the ceasefire, reunion – politically and personally – has proven virtually impossible. On either side of the Military Demarcation Line,...

Librarians Unite! 12 Tales of Librarian Badassery [in The Booklist Reader]

18 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Arab, British, European, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Korean, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

In just over a week, Seattle’s population will temporarily expand with tens of thousands of librarians (and other literary obsessives). Talk about a convergence of brains, guts, dedication, faith – and unconditional love of knowledge! Because that’s what it takes to be a librarian in...

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See [in Booklist]

14 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Korean, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW They meet at age 7. Young-sook and her mother are working their garden; Mi-ja crouches among the sweet-potato plants, desperate to eat. They are on Korea’s Jeju Island, “known for its Three Abundances of wind, stones, and women, it was also acknowledged for lacking...

The White Book by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith [in Library Journal]

03 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

White, not black, is the color of mourning in Han Kang’s home country of South Korea, as well as other parts of Asia. This latest from Han, whose The Vegetarian was the 2016 Man Booker International Prize winner, is a meditative exploration of the limitless...

Bad Friends by Ancco, translated by Janet Hong [in Booklist]

17 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Korean, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Only the back, front, and inside covers show color here, in muted pastels. Within are black-and-white panels so disturbing and brutal that any further vibrancy might prove overwhelming. And yet, despite the horrifying, can’t-turn-away abuse, Korean comics creator Ancco manages to infuse her extraordinary...

The Plotters by Un-su Kim, translated by Sora Kim-Russell [in Booklist]

26 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Reseng, 32, has been a professional assassin for 15 years, minus a short factory-worker stint at 22, while playing house with the love of his life. That he’s survived this long – never mind his risky career, he’s also a two-pack-a-day smoker with a...

The Tale of Cho Ung: A Classic of Vengeance, Loyalty, and Romance translated by Sookja Cho [in Christian Science Monitor]

16 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Translation, Young Adult Readers

The Tale of Cho Ung introduces Korean classic tale to English speakers Despite being “the best-selling fictional narrative during the late Chosŏn period” (1392-1910) of pre-modern Korea, little is known about the provenance of The Tale of Cho Ung. The author remains unknown and its initial composition...

Five More to Go: Alice Stephens’ Famous Adopted People [in The Booklist Reader]

02 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Lists, Nonfiction, North Korean, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Famous Adopted People by Alice Stephens “Everyone, it seems, is telling our story but us,” observes Lisa Pearl, the Korean-born, Bethesda, Maryland-raised transracial adoptee protagonist in Alice Stephens’ recent October debut. The author, who describes herself as being “among the first generation of transnational, interracial adoptees,”...

All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung [in Christian Science Monitor]

01 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Korean, Korean American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

'All You Can Ever Know' is a sensitive examination of transracial adoption Here’s a memoir by a transracial adoptee about being a transracial adoptee – and unless you're a transracial adoptee yourself, you're probably thinking, “eh, I'll pass.” And that would surely be a mistake. Because...

City of Ash and Red by Hye-Young Pyun, translated by Sora Kim-Russell [in Booklist]

17 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

The first collaboration between Hye-Young Pyun and translator Sora Kim-Russell, The Hole (2017), introduced one of Korea’s most lauded writers to Anglophone readers. Kim-Russell’s ability to replicate Pyun’s stifling terror repeats here as he presents a nameless anti-hero, known only as “the man.” Leaving behind envious...

Famous Adopted People by Alice Stephens + Author Interview [in Bloom]

27 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, North Korean, Repost

FAMOUS ADOPTED PEOPLE, A Story “In My Bones”: Q&A with Alice Stephens “Everyone, it seems, is telling our story but us,” observes Lisa Pearl, the Korean-born, Bethesda, Maryland-raised transracial adoptee protagonist in Alice Stephens’ debut novel, Famous Adopted People, which hits shelves on October 16. The author, who describes...

Option Now, Film Soon! [in East Wind ezine]

20 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Indian, Indian American, Korean, Korean American, North Korean, South Asian American, Taiwanese, Taiwanese American, Young Adult Readers

While texting with a (much younger) Korean American friend the other day about meeting at the movies, I gave her two choices: CRA or Searching. I was all giddy on my end, thinking how phenomenally lucky we were to have TWO APA choices, but my...

Famous Adopted People by Alice Stephens [in Booklist]

17 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, North Korean, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW “Everyone, it seems, is telling our story but us,” observes Lisa Pearl, the Korean-born, Bethesda, Maryland-raised transracial adoptee protagonist in Alice Stephens’ debut novel. The author, who describes herself as being “among the first generation of transnational, interracial adoptees,” takes charge with a tale...

Five More to Go: Crystal Hana Kim’s If You Leave Me [in The Booklist Reader]

30 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Lists, Repost, Translation

I got to get this started for The Booklist Reader ...

The Court Dancer by Kyung-sook Shin, translated by Anton Hur [in Booklist]

16 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Man Asian Literary Prize-winning Kyung-sook Shin (The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness, 2015) alchemizes a brief mention in a French diplomat’s book about his turn-of-the-century Korean tenure into a gorgeous epic that seamlessly combines history and fiction to create a hybrid masterpiece. In 1888, France’s first...

If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim [in Booklist]

09 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Hunger, both physical and emotional, haunts the lives of the extended Lee-Yun family during the tumultuous, violent decades that define modern South Korea in the latter-20th century. Haemi and Kyunghwan are childhood playmates in the final years of Japan’s brutal colonization, then become desperate,...

The Good Son by You-Jeong Jeong, translated by Chi-Young Kim [in Booklist]

26 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Translation

The opening sentence – “The smell of blood woke me” – gives way to a young man discovering his mother’s freshly murdered corpse. He’s gone off his epilepsy medications again, and has trouble remembering, but he’s determined to figure out what happened. Initially, the whodunit and...

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