Korean Archives - Page 6 of 13

A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa, translated by Risa Kobayashi [in Library Journal]

23 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Japanese, Korean, Memoir, Nonfiction, North Korean, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Memoirs by North Korean defectors have proliferated, but Masaji Ishikawa's, originally published in 2000, might be the first available in English translation by a Japanese-born escapee. The Japanese bestseller, I Was Kim Jong Il's Cook (2004), by pseudonymous Kenji Fujimoto, could be the only other...

In the Shadow of the Sun by Anne Sibley O’Brien [in School Library Journal]

03 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Korean, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, North Korean, Repost, Young Adult Readers

"Who in their right mind tries to bond with their kids by taking them on a tour of North Korea?'" American aid worker Mark Andrews does when he arrives in Pyongyang with 16-year-old son Simon and 12-year-old daughter Mia. He's convinced "the trip would be...

Familiar Things by Sok-yong Hwang, translated by Sora Kim-Russell [in Booklist]

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

*STARRED REVIEW Toughened by a nickname thrown at him by a policeman threatening punishment, Bugeye arrives on Flower Island – an ironic name for the vast city dump on the outskirts of Seoul – with his mother, who works as a garbage picker. His father is...

Dust and Other Stories by Yi T’aejun, translated by Janet Poole [in Booklist]

05 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW During Japan’s brutal occupation of Korea (1910–45), marked by systematic suppression of the Korean language, culture, and identity, Yi T’aejun produced stories that were “considered among the best of his time.” Translator Janet Poole’s impressive introduction not only contextualizes Yi’s significance in the Korean canon...

GO by Kazuki Kaneshiro, translated by Takami Nieda [in Booklist]

22 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Korean, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Japan and Korea’s centuries-long, combative history has long made Koreans in Japan second-class citizens. Kaneshiro, who is Korean Japanese, channels his own experiences into his teenage protagonist, Sugihara, a Japan-born-and-raised ethnic Korean. Sugihara decides to transfer into a Japanese high school after attending only Korean...

Ask a North Korean: Defectors Talk about Their Lives Inside the World’s Most Secretive Nation by Daniel Tudor [in Booklist]

08 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, Korean, Nonfiction, North Korean, Repost, Translation

For Western readers, most North Korea-focused titles cover two categories, writes Daniel Tudor, former Korea correspondent for The Economist: politics and “testimony-style books written by defectors who tell horror stories.” What’s missing are “the real daily experiences of the vast majority of the North Koreans”...

A Transracial Adoption Reader [in The Booklist Reader]

10 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Indian American, Korean, Korean American, Latin American, Latina/o/x, Lists, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian American, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Now-adult adoptees who arrived in the United States from other countries are learning that their U.S. citizenship can’t be assumed. Two recent tragedies have highlighted the shocking realization: the May 2017 suicide of Phillip Clay, adopted at eight by a Philadelphia family and deported to Seoul 29...

Favorite Adult Books 2017 [in The Booklist Reader]

11 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, British Asian, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Japanese, Korean, Korean American, Lists, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, Pakistani, Repost, South Asian, Translation

What sweet agony to have so many fantabulous, freakin’ spectacular books from which to cull. I’ve got my 2017 favorite adult titles down to a baker’s dozen, chosen under great duress. They’re presented in alphabetical order – opposed to actually ranked, a feat which just might...

10 Diverse Debut Story Collections [in The Booklist Reader]

16 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Arab, Black/African American, British, British Asian, Caribbean, Chinese American, Fiction, Korean, Latina/o/x, Lists, North Korean, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American, Translation

Short-story collection The Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri’s first published book, won the Pulitzer Prize. Phil Klay’s debut collection, Redeployment, got him the National Book Award. Even Tom Hanks got in on the short story game with his debut book, Uncommon Type, out last month. Right now, eyes are...

Gone: A Girl, a Violin, a Life Unstrung by Min Kym [in Library Journal]

23 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British Asian, Korean, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Kym’s first violin was a paper cutout copied from an encyclopedia; her first actual instrument was a “harsh, factory-made thing” on which she immediately taught herself “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” By her first or second lesson, Kym knew playing the violin "was not simply for...

North Station by Bae Suah, translated by Deborah Smith [in Library Journal]

20 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

One word describes Bae Suah's latest: enigmatic. The seven stories that comprise her first translated-into-English collection (and her third collaboration with prolifically adroit British translator of choice Smith) are more fragments than linear narratives. In the opening "First Snow, First Sight," unreliable memory between two...

I Hear Your Voice by Young-ha Kim, translated by Krys Lee [in Booklist]

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

In the West, K-pop, K-drama, and “Gangnam Style” are synonymous with contemporary South Korea. Less well known is an underbelly class of street youth, battling abandonment, brutality, and worse. Kim (Black Flower, 2012), one of Korea’s most lauded writers, takes readers into Seoul’s grittiest corners, beginning...

The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun, translated by Sora Kim-Russell [in Booklist]

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

When Oghi wakes in a hospital room, his world doesn’t align with his last memories. He’s been in a coma after surviving a car accident, but his wife is dead, and he’s completely paralyzed. At 47, Oghi is parentless and childless, with few friends and colleagues...

Ten Works of Contemporary Korean Literature in Translation [in The Booklist Reader]

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

Despite Maureen Corrigan’s rather nasty NPR review of Korean author Kyung-sook Shin’s 2011 Stateside debut, Please Look After Mom – her phrase “cheap consolations of kimchee-scented Kleenex fiction” caused particular affront – Mom became a major bestseller. In a stroke of well-deserved vindication, Shin became the first woman...

Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with 12 New Titles [in The Booklist Reader]

10 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British Asian, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Japanese American, Korean, Korean American, Lists, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American, Southeast Asian American, Vietnamese American

While Columbus is credited with discovering the Americas, notable scholars and historians have argued that Chinese explorers traveled around the world in the early 15th century and created a surviving map that shows America on its route. Imagine if those ancient explorers had stayed. The history of Asians...

Author Interview: Jimin Han [in Bloom]

02 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Repost

The Small Revolutions Make Way for the Big Ones Recent Korean history seems to be getting quite the literal spotlight from both sides of the globe – by native Korean and Korean American writers alike. In Human Acts – Han Kang’s follow-up to her Man Booker International...

A Small Revolution by Jimin Han [in Booklist]

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

In a Pennsylvania college dorm, five teens are trapped in a life-and-death situation. The quintet’s point of connection, allegedly dead, is a Korean American student, Jaesung, who was reported to have perished in a recent car fire in Seoul. Yoona, in whose room the terror plays...

Recitation by Bae Suah, translated by Deborah Smith [in Library Journal]

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

*STARRED REVIEW For Kyung-hee, a self-described "theatre actor specializing in recitation," the "roving life" proves to be the only antidote to "everything [being] irresolvably vague and depressing." Traveling through Europe and Asia, she shares experiences and memories with new acquaintances and more intimate friends. Wandering without...

Meeting with My Brother by Yi Mun-yol, translated by Heinz Insu Fenkl and Yoosup Chang [in Booklist]

30 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, North Korean, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW “The Korean War displaced and fragmented more than ten million families,” writes Heinz Insu Fenkl in his introduction to his new translation of Yi’s novella about the first meeting between two adult brothers. Yi, one of Korea’s most prominent literary figures, and his family were...

Author Interview: Min Jin Lee [in Bloom]

21 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Japanese, Korean, Korean American, Repost

On History, Survival & Intimacy Becoming a bestselling author took Min Jin Lee 11 years – and so much more of her life. She quit lawyering, but without that income, tuition for an MFA proved impossible. So she found every bargain opportunity in New York City to...

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