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Children's & YAThe Wizard Bakery
by Gu Byeong-mo
THIS FANTASTICAL COMING-OF -AGE NOVEL follows several eventful weeks in the life of a nameless 16-year-old boy, whose mother committed suicide when he was young, and who lives in an unhappy household with his father, stepmom, and 8-year-old stepsister. For six years since the stepmother joined the family, she has slowly but definitely pushed the boy out of the familial circle. She relegates him to his room, stops doing laundry or cooking for him, and ices him out. When he was twelve, he developed a severe stutter and since then has struggled with school, bullying, and other issues, retreating and staying silent. He takes care of his meals by buying baked goods at the neighborhood bakery, Wizard Bakery, which is operated by an odd baker and a nice cashier.With an arch, darkly funny voice, this fantastical novel grapples with the choices you make in life and their consequences, the power of kind, generous strangers in changing someone’s life, and the family you are born into vs. the one you create. Slim and streamlined as it might be, this novel reveals a unique voice, one that is bold and exciting. This novel won the Changbi Young Adult Literature Award in 2009.
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FictionBunker X Burim District
by Young sook Kang
IT IS ONE YEAR AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE nicknamed ‘The Big One’ destroyed everything in Burim District, and Yujin is living in a bunker. This is the bunker Yujin found after wandering from shelter to shelter. She lives in the damp and stuffy bunker with 10 other people, surviving off any debris they can find and the survival kits occasionally distributed to them from the outside. The first thing that jumps out at readers about this book is the desolate life in the bunker and the ashen landscape of District Burim which was razed to the ground by an earthquake. Young-sook Kang, who has frequently dealt with the topics of cities and disasters in her novels, paints an even more vivid and shocking depiction of disasters in this book. In particular, the memories that South Koreans have of recent. The reason why Yujin and the other survivors of ‘The Big One’ must live in the bunker is because the government judged that Burim District was a polluted area after the earthquake, subsequently isolating it from the rest of the world. People are allowed to leave Burim District and settle in nearby N city, but in order to do this they must first put a biometric chip in their bodies and become ‘objects of management’. The people who cannot—or will not—do this have no choice but to remain in the bunker. But one day, people in gray hazmat suits come into Burim District carrying a large human-sized machine. It doesn’t take long before people start disappearing from the bunker and rumors start surfacing. Now Yujin, who has been sending people one by one to N city, begins to wonder if she can survive till the end. At the same time, while describing the history of Burim District and showing how there were already cracks and gaps existing beneath the surface of everyday life, Young-sook Kang imagines an earthquake that instantly makes the social inequalities painfully apparent. Before ‘The Big One’, Burim District was already a failing city. Although it enjoyed a short-lived boom from the iron industry, closures and suspended projects for redevelopment caused the city to be abandoned. Eventually Burim District became the home for all of society’s rejects—people who have no place to go because they have either failed in the big city or because they are sick. The image of a government that so quickly labels, isolates, and abandons a failed city where people whom no one cares for live, feels less like fiction and more like the inequalities that are present in every corner of our society today.
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April 2021TO THE MOON
by Jang Ryujin
TO THE MOON is centered around three young women in their thirties working mundane jobs at a snack manufacturer. Despite coming from different departments, they bond over their similar backgrounds of humble origins, being considered average performers, and lacking prestigious positions.The story follows Eun-sang, the eldest of the group, who constantly seeks ways to earn extra money but faces trouble for her office mini mart. Jisong, the youngest, dreams of a perfect romance with her Taiwanese boyfriend and spends her low salary on trips to Taipei. The narrator, Dahae, works in the Snacks department and endures an incompetent team leader while struggling to support her injured mother and find a better apartment.During a lunch gathering, Eun-sang excitedly reveals her discovery of Ethereum, a cryptocurrency rivaling Bitcoin. She invests her savings, hoping to make enough money to quit her job. Intrigued, Dahae opens an account, while Jisong remains skeptical. As the Ethereum price fluctuates, Dahae and Eun-sang’s friendship evolves, causing tension with Jisong. Despite threats of breaking up, Dahae and Eun-sang desperately want to share their newfound wealth with Jisong.And then, China outlaws crypto ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings), and the market crashes......The title, TO THE MOON, symbolizes Eun-sang’s belief that they should hold on until Ethereum’s price skyrockets. Set in modern Seoul, the novel explores class divisions, gender inequality, and unattainable wealth. It unfolds with a thrilling pace akin to a heist movie, delving into the complexities of female friendship and materialistic desires. Jang aims to create a bittersweet experience, akin to consuming excessive sugar—initially sweet, but with an aftertaste that lacks pleasantness.
