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BookDragon Blog

24 Jan / The Interpreter by Suki Kim + Author Interview [in AsianWeek]

Suki KimLiterary Vagabond Suki Kim Makes Her Debut

Suki Kim and I have so many similarities in our respective pasts that we most certainly have crossed paths before. We were both in London at the same time, studying in the same department at London University (she in Korean literature, I in Japanese), hanging out at the same small specialized library there, and going to the same fabulous fringe theater (where she bartended and I subscribed) on a regular basis.

When we finally meet officially to discuss the publication of her first novel, The Interpreter – about a young Korean American woman, Suzy Park, living in New York City and searching for answers as to why her shopkeeper parents were murdered – we quickly move from small talk to real conversation.

Born in Seoul, Korea and raised in New York City, Kim majored in English and minored in East Asian Literature at Barnard College. She headed to London immediately after graduation but after a year-and-a-half of graduate study in Korean literature, Kim decided to forego the Ph.D. route. “There was just too much politics involved with getting into that field. While great Japanese and Chinese literature in translation was and is being taught, the literature being translated from Korean was and continues to be really lacking.” Fully bilingual, Kim herself began translating a novel as part of her degree, but in the process discovered she “enjoyed writing [her] own stuff more.” …[click here for more]

Author interview: “Literary Vagabond Suki Kim Makes Her Debut,” AsianWeek, January 24, 2003

Readers: Adult

Published: 2003

By Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Korean American, Repost Tags > AsianWeek, Assimilation, BookDragon, Coming-of-age, Death, Family, Identity, Immigration, Interpreter, Mystery, Parent/child relationship, Siblings, Suki Kim
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