Bestselling Young Adult Novel
Sold Over 1000K Copies to Date!
Awarded Jaeum&Moeum’s 1st Young Adult Lit Prize
In The Time Sellers, Kim renders her starkly philosophical and abstract tale about the passage of time in the riveting ways of detective fiction. She picks up things others won’t do and the things they won’t say and fashions them as her very own— hence bringing to Young Adult fiction a whole new world of stories. Borrowing from the detective novel, Kim displays a natural flair for holding her readers rapt until the very end.
The novel follows the protagonist, Onjo, who adopts the nickname “Cronus” at an Internet cafe, as he opens a business selling his time, named “The Time Sellers”. The ancient god Cronus, in spite of his appearance as an old man sporting a flowing beard and angelic wings on his back, is a ruthless being who castrated his father Uranus with his own harpe and swallowed his own babies for the fear that he may surpass him—a cutthroat figure who used each lost drop of his time becomes in Onjo’s eyes the true god of time. For the era we live in, where success is paramount and based on the carving and calculation of time to the smallest seconds, Cronus becomes the perfect deity. Onjo, inheriting the unfulfilled aspirations of his deceased dad, a skilled firefighter, transitions to Cronus, the proprietor of the 'The Time Sellers,' resolving all of his clients' requests.
Onjo’s first client, nicknamed: 'ByYourSide,' seeks help to find a misplaced MP3 player lost in the classroom next to Onjo’s. His only request is for the MP3 player to be returned to his desk. No other consequences. Last summer, a similar MP3 theft caused a tragedy at Onjo’s school. The kid who stole the MP3 player was caught during late-night study hours, but the teacher decided to deal with the issue the next day. The child, unable to endure the pressure, tragically ended his life by jumping off the roof. Both the parents and teachers decided to cover up the incident. Now faced with a similar theft, Onjo struggles to prevent another friend from meeting a similar fate.
The second request is peculiar – a plea for Onjo to share a sumptuous meal with the client's grandfather. In an unexpected turn, Kangdo, the client, reveals the inheritance mess caused by their grandfather, who, after dividing his property and traveling the world freely, meets with an accident in the US where he went to see his son, Kang do’s father. At the same time, in Korea, the grandmother passed away alone in the family house, where she had waited years for everyone to return. The father, too busy to do a funeral, tells Kangdo to put her body in the fridge. Upon learning of this, the grandfather reports him to the prosecutors in anger, and requests to reclaim the funds he used for his son’s study abroad. The client, Kangdo, seeking to fulfill their grandmother's final dream of a harmonious family meal, turns to Onjo to share a pleasant dinner with his grandfather in his place. Kangdo, who decided to stay in Korea after holding a funeral for his grandmother, lives separately from his father and grandfather. He still needs time to heal and reconcile with his family.
Onjo’s mom, who bravely raised him alone after losing her husband, meets a new companion at the Environment Lovers Gathering at school, and it's Onjo's homeroom teacher, Mr Brown Bear. Mr. Brown Bear worries about Onjo, as the time-selling shop grows strong, becoming something far more than just a business.
Requests continue, including a plea from time-strung heaven for Onjo to be their celestial mail carrier, Ganesha also seeks a friend, and as revelations about the friend who almost died in the MP3 player incident unfold, unforeseen crises once again befall Onjo and their friends.
Even in the midst of crisis and uncertainty, the children wisely realize that time has the power to take today to somewhere else, somewhere unknown. The certainty is that time guides this moment to another place unless we hold on to it tight. In not letting go of that time, we can transform moments of despair into moments of hope.
Onjo decides to keep Kangdo’s invitation to eat with his grandfather and father, whom he has forgiven, for a distant day. The story leaves us with lingering curiosity- how shall time unfold? Time, always welcomed anew, what hope shall it bring us?
There are no expectations.