The Camellias By Kim Yu-jeong (Jimoondang, 5,000 won) Revealing author Kim Yu-jeong’s mastery of colloquial dialect and his commanding insight into the charms of peasants, “The Camellias” tells a humorous tale of two young souls living in the countryside in the 1930s. The protagonist, a naïve young boy from a peasant family, does not like it when his rooster gets into fights with Jeom-soon’s ...

Cheap prices, personal service and the smell of musty pages draw in lovers of literature Though not fresh and new, used books have their own charm. It could be their faded pages, old fashioned covers, or maybe it’s their price. While it’s now easy to spot English-language books ― both used and new ― in Seoul’s big chain bookstores, some smaller stores like to keep doing things the old way. The ...

Swiftly paced satire Pym By Mat Johnson (Spiegal & Grau, $24) A swiftly paced satire, Mat Johnson's “Pym” skewers Edgar Allan Poe, race in America, the snack-food industry, academia, landscape painting and abominable snowmen while following a band of black adventurers seeking their fortune in Antarctica. Recently fired American literature professor Chris Jaynes is obsessed with Poe’s only no...

“Labyrinth walker” and award-winning author of “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter,” Kim Edwards talks about allowing oneself to head out into uncertain territory ― be it in the middle of a lake or the middle of a story ― and see where the journey takes you. Her latest novel, “The Lake of Dreams,” was published in January. 1. The latest book or movie that made you cry? “Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenid...

Was there a St. Louis woman who could resist Ernest Hemingway? He married and divorced three of them, prompting Gertrude Stein to quip: “Anyone who’s married three girls from St. Louis hasn’t learned much.” One might argue it was the “girls” who didn’t learn. Yet we’ll forgive Hemingway’s first wife, who fell in love when he was only 21. Handsome and magnetic, Hemingway had little (although s...

PALO ALTO, California ― Over hundreds of years, and thousands of miles, a collection of rare historic books now on display at America’s Stanford University bristles with an excitement as fresh as yesterday. The collection, “The American Enlightenment: Treasures from the Stanford University Libraries,” offers a glimpse of trans-Atlantic intellectual debates triggered by the discovery of the New W...

What does it take to inform kids about a wide range of non-fiction topics? Understanding kids’ sensibility to language and their use of language, children’s book writer Kim Hee-kyung answers. “A House of the Mind: Maum” is Kim’s second children’s book. “There is no solid storyline in this book,” Kim told The Korea Herald. “It only consists of really short sentences throughout, that sound rathe...

Seven authors and rain Rain in Seven Colors By Kim Mi-wol et al. (Yolimwon Publishing Group, 12,000 won) Seven female writers, all in their 30s, together have published an anthology of short stories under one theme: rain. The book, “Rain in Seven Colors,” contains seven short stories written by the seven writers: Jang Eun-jin, Kim Soom, Kim Mi-wol, Yoon Yi-hyeong, Kim Yi-seol, Hwang Jeong-eu...

Living in the post war period A Toy City By Lee Dong-ha (Jimoondang, 5,000 won) Written from the perspective of a young boy in elementary school, “A Toy City” shows what it was like to live in the post war period of the 1950s. An obvious version of author Lee Dong-ha’s younger self, the protagonist, a young boy from Daegu, is overwhelmed when his family moves to Seoul only a few years after ...

On a typical winter day, the Bard of Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill steps out onto the sidewalk to go to work. He wears only a light jacket; walks by eucalyptus trees, not delis; past charming suburban yards, not gritty subway stops. It’s Jonathan Lethem, one of New York’s most high-profile novelists, and he’s far from Brooklyn’s snow-filled sidewalks: he’s transplanted himself to Southern California. “...

Four volumes of “Azaleas,” a collection of poems by Kim Sowol (1902-1934), one of the most famous poets in early modern Korea, have been added to the nation’s cultural heritage list, the Cultural Heritage Administration said Thursday. The four volumes were first published in 1925, containing a total of 127 poems written by Kim. Beautifully poignant in style, a lot of Kim’s works are known to be ...

ST. LOUIS (AP) ― Dozens of Thomas Jefferson’s books, some including handwritten notes from America’s third president, have been found in the rare books collection at Washington University in St. Louis. Now, historians are poring through the 69 newly discovered books and five others the school already knew about, and librarians are searching the collection for more volumes that may have belonged ...

Northeast Asian History Foundation is to launch various programs to promote Korea’s sovereignty over Dokdo, rocky islets in the East Sea that Japanese have claimed as part of their territory. The government affiliated research institution said its Dokdo programs would include educational workshops, promotional exhibitions, and symposiums that will discuss Japanese history textbooks that do not t...

What makes portraits different from other paintings? The substance of its subject, scholar Cho Sun-mie answers. An English edition of Cho’s book on Korean portrait paintings and their stylistic development ― mainly of the ones from the Joseon Dynasty (1392―1897) ― has been published. The book, “Great Korean Portraits: Immortal Images of the Noble and the Brave,” introduces portraits of 50 prom...

A modern Korean novel The Wings By Yi Sang (Jimoondang, 5,000 won) Author Yi Sang (1910-1937) is regarded as one of the most innovative writers in modern Korean literature. Having trained as an architect, Yi blurred the boundaries between poetry, fiction and essay, while breaking the rules of language and its forms. One of Yi’s short stories, “The Wings” exhibits Yi’s inventive literary tech...