Most Popular
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Exports to US reach all-time high, widen gap with China
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Trump rekindles criticism: US forces defending 'wealthy' S. Korea 'free of charge'
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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[Music in drama] Rekindle a love that slipped through your fingers
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Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
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Golden chance to liquidate babies’ gold rings?
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Seoul Metro to seek legal action against malicious complaints
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Illit, mired in controversy, remains on Billboard charts for 5th week
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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On May Day, labor unions blast Yoon's foreign nanny proposal
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Beautiful and horrifying: ‘The Yellow Birds’ takes the reader to an Iraqi battlefield
Pvt. John Bartle, the narrator of Kevin Powers’ sorrowful war novel “The Yellow Birds,” is a man of reason caught between the uncontrolled emotions of two men.The first is his sergeant, a severe gunslinger and molder of warriors named Sterling. Sgt. Sterling’s discipline and his rage against the enemy are keeping his squad of men alive as they patrol an eerie, death-filled Iraqi landscape. Pvt. Bartle loves and hates him for this.“I hated the way he excelled in death and brutality and domination
Nov. 15, 2012
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T.S. Eliot’s widow Valerie Eliot dies
LONDON (AP) ― Valerie Eliot, the widow of T.S. Eliot and zealous guardian of the poet’s literary legacy for almost half a century, has died. She was 86.In a statement Sunday, the Eliot estate said Valerie Eliot died two days before at her London home after a short illness.Born Valerie Fletcher in Leeds, northern England, on Aug. 17, 1926, Eliot was the second wife of the U.S.-born Nobel literature laureate. She met him at London publisher Faber & Faber, where he was a director and she a star-str
Nov. 12, 2012
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People go ‘Astray’ in historical fiction
AstrayBy Emma Donoghue(Little, Brown and Co)In her novel “Room,” Emma Donoghue let us see the world from the vantage point of a little boy in an 11-by-11-foot room. In the stories gathered in “Astray,” Donoghue busts loose, returning to her roots in historical fiction by going forth into the wider world.Donoghue’s fellow travelers are voyagers who, between 1639 and 1968, left the world they knew for undiscovered countries from which they never returned. Each of their stories is introduced by a d
Nov. 8, 2012
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Intricate plot makes for page-turner
PhantomBy Jo Nesbo(Knopf) Jo Nesbo, whose crime thrillers have sold more than 10 million copies in Europe and the United States, has been anointed as the latest king of Scandinavian noir, the heir to the addictive-page-turning throne left vacant by the death of Stieg Larsson.But reading his books in Los Angeles brings to mind a different archetypal noir figure: Michael Connelly’s tortured LAPD detective Harry Bosch.Nesbo’s detective, who is featured in nine of his 16 books, including his latest,
Nov. 8, 2012
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Tony Kushner sees bleak future for U.S.
Two years ago the run-up to America’s Iraq invasion was driving Tony Kushner crazy, so he started writing a play in response. In early 2003, The Nation magazine published the first scene of this work in progress, “Only We Who Guard the Mystery Shall Be Unhappy.” In the scene, a frankly audacious and compelling polemic, First Lady Laura Bush reads “The Brothers Karamazov” to the ghosts of dead Iraqi children.In recent months this scene, along with part of a second one, has been presented at dozen
Nov. 8, 2012
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Cornwell pens 20th Scarpetta novel
Medical examiners were not sexy, crime-solving heroes when Patricia Cornwell wrote her first Kay Scarpetta mystery 22 years ago.Today, with the publication of the 20th book featuring the pasta-cooking, sharp-dressing forensic scientist, there is an entire industry of sexy medical examiners on television, and Cornwell accepts the responsibility.“I think you can blame Scarpetta. She opened the gate that made it accessible,” Cornwell said. The Scarpetta books, with their grisly autopsies and violen
Nov. 8, 2012
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Corsican epic wins France’s top book prize
PARIS (AFP) ― France’s top literary prize, the Goncourt, on Wednesday went to Jerome Ferrari for a Corsican epic about dashed hopes, set in a village bar on the troubled Mediterranean island.“Le Sermon sur la Chute de Rome” (The Sermon on the Fall of Rome) tells of a young man who packs in his philosophy studies to open a bar on the island with an old friend, hoping to turn it into a haven of peace and friendship.But things take a radically different turn as drink, sex, corruption ― and the viol
Nov. 8, 2012
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U.S. author Julie Otsuka wins top French book prize
PARIS (AFP) ― U.S. writer Julie Otsuka won France’s Femina foreign novel prize Monday for “The Buddha in the Attic,” a novel about the thousands of Japanese women sent to California in the early 1900s for arranged marriages.The novel follows Fumiko, Hanako and Miyoshi with their kimonos, sandals and long black hair, first to the Japanese husbands awaiting them in the United States, then through their new lives.“I hope the novel honoured this Monday will bring awareness to Europe about the histor
Nov. 7, 2012
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Archiving memories of writers
Following is part of a series exploring unique museums, collections and the passionate collectors behind them. ― Ed.Though many writers now use computers when they create their works, there’s always something emotionally gripping about looking at their handwriting.Late author Park Wan-suh, for example, would leave handwritten notes to her children whenever she left the house unattended. She told them to not to fight over cakes, how to cook a meal in detail, and what not to do when taking care of
Nov. 6, 2012
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‘Impossible country’ made plausible in new Korea book
South Korea can easily fly under the radar of even an astute observer of international affairs in the West.Many Korea watchers get tricked into focusing their attention on that black box that is North Korea, perhaps because precious little can be gleaned about the hyper-secretive state.Daniel Tudor, Korea correspondent for The Economist, avoids that trap, focusing instead on South Korea which, surprisingly, is almost as difficult a nut to crack as evidenced by the dearth of resources out there a
Nov. 1, 2012
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A moving historical journey
The Lighthouse RoadBy Peter Geye (Unbridled) “The Lighthouse Road,” a novel about orphans and immigrants making lives for themselves in northern Minnesota from the 1890s through the 1920s, will extend Peter Geye’s reputation as a chronicler of life along Lake Superior and as a master craftsman of man vs. nature tales. (His first novel, “Safe From the Sea,” featuring a gripping account of a Lake Superior shipwreck, a la the Edmund Fitzgerald.)But the pleasures of “The Lighthouse Road” go far beyo
Nov. 1, 2012
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‘The Twelve’ blends suffering, hope
The TwelveBy Justin Cronin (Ballantine Books)In Justin Cronin’s bestseller “The Passage,” plagues of vampires swarmed the earth, forming the “Twelve Viral Tribes” who laid “waste to every living thing,” except for pockets of survivors, and Amy, “a child to stand against them.”In my review last year of “The Passage” I suggested the novel was a creation story ― a poetic post-apocalyptic tale, part supernatural thriller and part philosophical meditation on the nature of humanity. If “The Passage” i
Nov. 1, 2012
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Getting stories out into the world
It's been more than 20 years since author Han Mal-sook's novel “Hymn of the Spirit” was published, but the book continues to get reviews from foreign countries, this time from Sweden.The 1981 novel is Han's exploration of spirituality, dreams, death and local shamanism, told through the story of a Korean housewife and her relationship with others ― including her ex-boyfriend and his current wife. The book was translated into English in 1983 and is said to have been considered by the Nobel Commit
Nov. 1, 2012
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Thai and Korean authors discuss each others’ work
Making new friends is always exciting, especially if they share your interests and understand the hurdles of what you do.Two writers, one from Korea and the other from Thailand, meet for the first time during a literary event in Korea and shared their thoughts about each others’ work. Thai writer Uthis Haemamool and Korean writer Yun I-hyeong are among the 20 writers participating in this year’s Seoul International Writers’ Festival. The literary bash, which also serves as a networking event amo
Oct. 31, 2012
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Pearson, Bertelsmann confirm publishing tie-up
LONDON (AP) ― Two of the world’s biggest publishing houses are to link up in a deal that will bring the writings of classics like George Orwell’s “1984’’ and this year’s literary phenomenon “Fifty Shades of Grey’’ under one umbrella.Confirmation that Pearson will merge its Penguin Books division with Random House, which is owned by German media company Bertelsmann, will create the world’s largest publisher of consumer books, with around a quarter of the market.As well as publishing books from au
Oct. 30, 2012
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Back from Miami: Tom Wolfe talks up his new novel
NEW YORK (AP) ― Like a prize-winning reporter, fame follows Tom Wolfe, even when he swaps the white suit for a blue blazer, even when he visits some strip club in Miami as research ― yes, research ― for his new novel.“I was the only man with a necktie,’’ he says with a chuckle, back in his trademark white during a recent interview at his Manhattan apartment. “They seat you in these little couches, and it was like a furniture show room ― all these pieces of furniture would stretch long for maybe
Oct. 28, 2012
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Reading ‘Gone with the Wind’ in Pyongyang
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ― The former black marketeer has read it. So has the beautiful young librarian, and the aging philosophy professor who has spent his life teaching the ruling doctrine of this isolated outpost of totalitarian socialism. At times it seems as if everyone in Pyongyang, a city full of monuments to its own mythology, has read the book. In it they found a tortured love story, or a parable of bourgeois decline. Many found heroes. They lost themselves in the story of a nation
Oct. 25, 2012
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Rock star tries to explain himself
‘Who I Am’By Pete Townshend (Harper)Pete Townshend has always been rock ‘n’ roll’s reluctant warrior.The driving force behind the legendary band the Who, Townshend revolutionized rock with his guitar and pen. He wrote numerous anthems, including “My Generation,” “See Me, Feel Me,” “Baba O’ Reilly” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” and, when he wasn’t smashing guitars, embraced his role as the thinking man’s rock star.At the same time, Townshend spent much of his life offstage trying to avoid all tha
Oct. 25, 2012
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A look at a killer ― and his mother
“Lost Girls”By Caitlin Rother (Pinnacle)On the day in 2010 when a San Diego judge sentenced John Albert Gardner to life in prison for the rape and murder of two teenage girls, the fathers of his victims referred to him in court as a monster and a predator.“Lost Girls” by veteran journalist and true-crime writer Caitlin Rother is a deeply reported, dispassionately written attempt to determine what created that monster and predator. It is a cautionary tale and a horror story, done superbly by a wr
Oct. 25, 2012
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Readers snap up ‘Olje Classics’
The fourth installment of a book series consisting of four local and Western classics, published at a low-price to make the books accessible to the less fortunate, sold out less than a week after going on sale online last week.Published by non-profit corporation Olje, the “Olje Classics” series’ newly released books are comprised of “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” by Friedrich Nietzsche; John Bunyan’s “The Pilgrim’s Progress”; “Joseon Gyeonggukjeon” by 14th-century scholar Jung Do-jun; and “The Caigent
Oct. 25, 2012