These eight books will help you get more into and started with contemporary Korean literature.

I don’t when the first time I came across Korean literature as a whole was. But my first time experiencing Korean culture was when I was 17 and selected for a prestigious government scholarship. I was fully funded to spend a summer in Seoul, South Korea, studying Korean at Ewha Womans’ University.

I loved my time in Korea, as I was directly integrated with Korean culture, that I wanted to keep studying the language. But where I went to college didn’t have a Korean program, and those dreams died for a bit. In graduate school, I somehow fell back into the hole of Korean studies, and did my master’s thesis in Korean women’s literature during the colonial and postcolonial periods.

I also won a Critical Language Scholarship in graduate school, which sent me to Busan, South Korea for two months, fully funded, to study Korean language again. I was running this blog at that point and heavily focusing on Korean literature, so when I was there, I stocked up on books at the local bookstores because I knew this was one of a few chances to be fully funded like this again.

Nowadays I’m still very dedicated to Korean literature, although I want to pivot somewhat and learn more about other regional literary attitudes. But it’s still very much my home base, and I blog about the books I am reading. Recently, at the time of typing this, I’ve multiple advance copies of books in translation, which is so exciting.

Anyways, throughout the years I’ve read so much, so these are eight books I think would help you get started with modern Korean literature. I’m defining modern as post-1985, as colonial and Park Chung-hee era literature should get their own dedicated blog posts.

Pavane for a Dead Princess by Park Min-gyu

The Library of Korean Literature series is an excellent resource for those looking for Korean literature in translation, as they were putting out books before it was trendy to be reading Korean literature. Pavane for a Dead Princess is tied for my top spot from this collection.

Originally published in Korea during the 2000s, this can be quite the controversial book because of how vocal the author/writer is about Korean literature. This book specifically questions and attacks the idea of beauty within Korean culture, asking how people view others through the prism of beauty.

With alternate takes on the plot while it’s still unfolding, this is a critique of society, but also a mirror for how we view others in our daily lives. The prose is excellent in my opinion!

2. Human Acts by Han Kang

With this selection, I was debating between two Han books: Human Acts and We Do Not Part. I was sent an advance copy of We Do Not Part before it came out, and I absolutely loved it. But Human Acts is more representative of her work and is a bit more personal, as she is a native of Gwangju.

For those new on Korean history, Human Acts takes place during the Gwangju Massacre. Gwangju is known to be one of the most liberal cities in South Korea, and was the heart of the resistance and democratic movement in the country. The successor to Park Chung-hee, yet another brutal dictator, went to his grave swearing he never killed so many people in Gwangju who were protesting the government’s policies.

Throughout the course of this novel, Han charts the impact of one boy’s death, along with so many others in the name of democracy. This is a powerful book especially as what happened in Gwangju the government tried to hide, and when it happened in Korea, no one outside of the city was aware of the atrocities and murder taking place. This is the book that was cited when Han won the Nobel Prize.

3. No One Writes Back by Jang Eun-jin

This is the other book from the Library of Korean Literature that I thought was the best. I actually prefer the prose in No One Writes Back, as it really sucks you into the world of the story that’s just brimming with loneliness and sadness, over Pavane for a Dead Princess. This book is really well written.

Regardless, the story in this one is that our protagonist is wandering the country with his blind dog. Wherever he goes he sends letters to the people in his life, but no one writes back, fueling his desperation to keep going and wander the planet until it seems like someone will notice him.

Eventually he does pick up a companion, but this is a story that feels like a testimony. Even as some of the people he comes into contact with die, he writes about them in his letters, keeping both them and himself alive as he moves through another series of events.

4. Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park

Now, I know a list won’t contain everything that I personally love, and this is one of those entries I was actually lukewarm about. But it’s an important book: Love in the Big City. There’s a reason why a drama and a movie about this book dropped in the same year.

This is a book about a gay man with HIV in Seoul. We move through the seasons of his life throughout the course of the book, including how he lives with his straight best friend slash roommate, how he navigates love with other men, and his relationship with his mother.

I really enjoyed the drama adaptation of the book, but the book itself I was lukewarm about, as I said before. It’s an important picture of queer and LGBTQ+ life in Seoul though, which is a rare form of representation that makes it across the ocean to us in the English speaking world.

5. Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo

While I love Cho’s follow up collection of short stories, Miss Kim Knows, more than this novel, I think this is a more important novel to start out with when it comes to Korean literature. It tells the story of Kim Ji-young, a young woman who was once so motivated to go out into the world and make a difference.

But when she gets married and pregnant, she sees even more how unfair the world is for women. No longer with a job or a career, she finds herself sinking into a depression, unable to accept how women are expected to do this in society.

This is such a poignant representation of the problem of women’s rights in Korea. Women’s rights and grievances are often ignored in the Korean context, which makes books like these have a ripple effect when they’re released in the country, as it feels like women are being seen. Definitely pick this one up if you’re interested in the gender studies side of things.

6. Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung

This is one of the books that I own in both Korean and English, especially as the Korean cover suckered me into buying it when I saw the book on the table at a bookstore in Busan. I read Cursed Bunny in English not long after it came out, and I enjoyed it a lot.

This is a short story collection, but Chung has a background in Slavic literature research, so that really shines in the inspiration for these stories. It’s not a straight Korean influence, and if you’re paying attention, you can really see how her background influences her writing.

Cursed Bunny is a collection of horror stories, so if you’re queasy, this might not be the collection for you. I personally liked how dark and disturbing these stories got, which made it the perfect read for October as Halloween started approaching.

7. Almond by Sohn Won-pyung

The review of Almond was one of my first big book reviews on the site, back when I had no idea what I was doing as a website owner and blogger. Now I’m a bit smarter, and I’ve read some more of Sohn’s work in English and Korean, which has made me a bit smarter as well on how to approach her writing.

This book is about Yun-jae, who has a brain condition that leaves him unable to really feel anger, and he doesn’t have many friends. He has a happy childhood and all, even with the condition, but when Christmas Eve comes around and a big tragedy leaves him alone in the world, everything changes for good.

When a boy bullies him at school, their relationship transforms over the course of the novel. It’s a fascinating book to read overall, and one of Sohn’s strongest works so far.

8. One Hundred Shadows by Hwang Jung-eun

This was a book I received as an advance copy, but procrastinated really hard on reading to the point where the time it came out appeared then was around the corner. Time really flies, but I did get around to reading this novel, which was shorter than I expected.

It’s set inside of a Seoul neighborhood that’s set to be demolished, as it’s a slum with an electronics market. The main character is one of the few people who constantly finds himself in this area, and he finds himself with his coworker as they talk about life and the condition of the shop and world around them.

This mixes in a bit of fantasy, but I thought this was so interesting to read as Korean soft power and cultural policy depicts Seoul as this shining, new place. At the time of typing this, the older sections of Itaewon are set to be torn down, forcing everyone who lived there out. Will they be able to afford the high rises that are going to be built? These are the questions that came up while I was reading this, as it mirrors the current reality of a country that rapidly developed.

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