Pile by the Bed reviews If We Cannot Go At the Speed of Light by Kim Cho-Yeop (translated by Anton Hur), a series of seven diverse and surprising science fiction short stories.
Pile by the Bed reviews Minbak by Ela Lee the story of three genrations of women who circile arounda long held secret but also a dark aspect of South Korean history.
Pile by the Bed reviews Art on Fire by Yun Ko-eun (translated by Lizzie Beuhler) a dark satire on the art world that follows a Korean artist on a surreal trip to take up a residency an American art foundation.
Pile by the Bed reviews The Mindnight Timetable by Bora Chung (trasnlated by Anton Hur) a series of connected short stories set in an insutute that collects and protects supernatural objects.
Pile by the Bed reviews Blood for the Undying Throne by Sung-Il Kim, (tanslated by Anton Hur), the second book in his Bleeding Empire triloy which broadens out the world through much needed backstory.
Pile by the Bed reviews A Thousand Blues by Cheon Seon-Ran (translated by Kim Chi-Young) a book about a discarded robot jockey who brings a family together.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends We Do Not Part the latest novel by South Korean Nobel Prize winner Han Kang, a poetic, elegiac novel dealing with the masssacre of citizens by authorities on Jeju Island in the 1940s.
Pile by the Bed reviews Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-Il Kim (tanslated by Anton Hur) – the first book in an epic fantasy series involving an evil empire, plucky rebels and a dragon.
Pile by the Bed reviews Your Utopia a series of “engagingly creepy” stories from South Korean author Bora Chung
Pile by the Bed reviews 8 Lives of a Century-old Trickster by Mirinae Lee, an assured and affective debut that takes readers through some of the darkest aspects of 20th century Korean history from a woman’s perspective.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-Yong an epic story of Twentieth Century Korean history through the eyes of a family of workers.
Pile by the Bed reviews If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha, a book which explores the lives of a group of young women in present day Seoul and the influence of the celebrity industry on their choices.
Recommended
Pile by the Bed reviews City of Ash and Red by Korean author Hwe-Young Pyun
South Korean literature has been slowly finding its way in translation. The Good Son, is the first English translation of You-Jeong Jeong’s and sits very snuggly in the mainstream psychological thriller realm. It has everything readers are looking for in the genre – a twisty tale, an unreliable, then too reliable narrator and plenty of violence. The Good Son opens in a clichéd enough way. The protagonist, Yu-jin wakes in his bedroom covered in dried blood. He has gone off his medication a few days before and has only flashes of memory of the previous night, certainly not enough to explain his bloody state. When he finally leaves his room he finds his mother, dead in the kitchen downstairs. And just when the reader starts to get comfortable, with some idea where this is going, his memory returns and the narrative goes in a completely different (and much darker) direction. Yu-jin is not an easy character to spend time with. It is tempting to try and be compassionate but once his memory starts returning this becomes more and more difficult. At this point the twists, which are based within his behaviour and memories start to become a little more predictable….
