“Interacting face to face, that is the very essence of exchanging stories”

That is how we live each day, and those days add up to a lifetime. I reflected on what they (farmers in Jeju) nurtured daily, how carrots, cabbages, and tangerines flourished under their care and found their way to people’s dinner tables. As my thoughts reached this point, the specific shapes, textures, and scents of these vegetables and fruits became vivid, as if I could feel them in my hands. The produce resulting from a hard day’s work, and the strength it provides people at night to carry on with their lives—I hoped my story, which people gathered to hear, would become something similar. After a reading I did at a bookstore in Jeju, my thoughts on novels changed completely. I began writing more novels than prose and started holding more reading sessions where I would read a newly written short story then listen to people’s stories, rather than giving lectures.

The stories I wrote to read at these reading sessions are what came together to form this book … after the reading, I asked the attendees to share their stories—what work they do, what their current interests are, how they came to participate in the reading session. Then someone would raise their hand, and everyone would look at that person. I too would lock eyes with them … I realize anew that interacting face to face, that is the very essence of sharing stories.

-From the Author’s Note

And… Kim Yeonsu’s “next” step

After publishing the short story collection A Future as Ordinary as This in 2022, Kim Yeonsu mentioned on several occasions that he experienced both a “powerful inner urge for transformation” and “unavoidable external circumstances prompting change.” His new book So Many Summers consists of short stories written after crossing that period, representing Kim’s “next” first step, brought about by both internal desires and external demands for change. The author read these stories to readers “face to face” in various bookstores and libraries, and “exchanged stories” with them. The works gradually and continuously evolved through direct interaction with readers. From October 2021 in Jeju to June 2023 in Changwon, these stories were written, read, listened to, and “rewritten” in various venues.

The author, who once sought out stories hidden within objects, now engages with people, looks into their eyes, listens to their stories firsthand, and reinterprets. He doesn’t just create stories to show, but tells and shares these narratives himself. The characters in Kim’s novels, once confined to telling each other stories and crafting their narratives, now emerge from the pages to come directly face to face with the author.

Perhaps because of this, the stories in So Many Summers read somewhat differently from the Kim’s previous works. As we experience the interplay between stories and life, witnessing how they mingle and seep into each other, and as we read the tales born from this process, we naturally come to understand why some lives begin anew after encountering a story, and why loving stories makes us more devoted to life. The stories, ranging from as short as sixteen pages to just under fifty at their longest (except for “So Many Summers”), each portray a moment in life while exploring its entirety, making readers pause. Instead of prompting us to reflect on or regret the past or to plan and resolve for the future, it’s as if something suddenly permeates our entire being, awakening us. Similar to the novelist character in Kim’s work, by simply observing rather than striving to achieve something, might we too “witness a new world unfolding” before our eyes?

“Through kindness alone, without reason”

In truth, stories have always been important to the author; the personal histories or stories of each individual within the broader scope of history, even more so. While not explicitly expressed through the author’s or characters’ words, readers often find unexpected comfort in Kim’s novels. His works do not instruct us to become someone else or urge us to transform into better or greater individuals. Instead, they encourage us to be ourselves, to deepen our own identities. The author’s focus lies solely on “how” to tell his stories.

Kim’s novels have grown gentler and kinder, with characters seemingly addressing readers directly. They offer comfort, almost as if making a gentle entreaty.

May these stories, penned by the author “through kindness alone, without reason,” become warm morsels of bread that nourish the readers’ hearts.