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Autumn Like Love: July and August Releases scrap download

사랑을 닮은 가을: 7월과 8월의 신간 도서입니다.

#NewReleases #K-Literature #2026

「KLWAVE brings a diverse range of Korean literature to readers worldwide. Our “New Releases” features a selection of new books published in July and August 2026, drawn from Kyobo Book Center’s “Book of the Month” list and Aladin’s “Wizard’s Choice” list.」



When September Comes

(…)

In September, I know even pain is love

In September, I know even parting is love

In September, I know all that ripens

Is love

(…)

By Jung Yong-cheol


Whether it’s the crisp weather, changes in serotonin, or simply my mood, the season that makes everything look like love has returned. In the early days of an autumn that resembles love, we introduce the eight new releases of July and August.

“It’s just beautiful to see weak, small creatures connected to each other, flying in the air.”

From the Author’s Notes.


Pyun Hye-young’s The Sociability of Birds is a collection of eight short stories that depicts people living different lives who form relationships, sometimes rely on each other, and at other times hurt each other. Just as birds—weak and small creatures—gather in flocks to survive, the characters in these stories try to form connections with others whenever they face situations that are difficult to withstand on their own. However, not all connections lead to a warm sense of solidarity. As we follow those who seem unapproachable yet whom we want to grow close to, as well as those who seem isolated despite being together, the collection invites us to look at the meaning of forming relationships with others from a new perspective.

Father’s illness, a conversation with ChatGPT, scary stories I used to tell my friends in school, the days I enjoyed listening to pansori, and an ordinary day when a partial solar eclipse occurred.


In I Wrote So, Kim Ae-ran sets aside the act of hastily analyzing things or labeling emotions and calmly writes down what happened and the conversations that took place that day. In this way, her prose is divided into three parts, each consisting of different memories and moments. Her approach of simply writing things as they are, without readily concluding what had happened or how she had felt, instead makes us think deeply about them.

When asked what love is, Jo Jung-Rae said, “Loving someone is to cry with them.”


Last August, he published Frostwork, a novel that is much like his answer. Lee Jae-I and Yoon So-in come to know each other through poetry and paintings. When one of them goes abroad to study, they naturally part ways. Five years later, they reunite and, in the face of family wealth and social realities, give up everything for each other and remain true to their love. We urge you to discover what kind of story the idea of “loved as shared tears,” as described by the author, ultimately becomes in a novel that has been said to be his last due to his health issues.

There are times when a part of us feels empty after we grow distant from others, experience unexpected things, and leave a familiar environment. Rather than trying to fill the void by force, Kim Hwa-jin’s With a Completely Empty Heart portrays the lives of those who continue on with empty hearts in seven short stories. The characters listen to others’ hearts when confronted with wounds, lingering feelings, and unfamiliar emotions left behind by relationships, while also listening to their own. As such, “a completely empty heart” does not refer to a state of loss or exhaustion, but to the temporary emptying of one’s heart in order to encounter another version of oneself.

Jeong Ji A’s Jjini Alert begins with two young women, Seong-jin and Hye-jin, moving from Seoul to a rural mountain village where the average age of the residents is seventy. After a rumor spreads that the two are lovers, the villagers become wary of them and try to drive them away. But as they share stories over meals, they start to understand one another. This novel warmly depicts a diverse range of people—natives and outsiders, the elderly and the young, Koreans and migrant women, and LGBT people—as they overcome prejudice and misunderstandings, becoming true neighbors.

Jeong-han, who used to be a trumpet player, moved to the countryside, driven by debt, and started growing strawberries. However, after also failing in the strawberry business, he chooses raising breadbugs, a new type of edible caterpillar, as his final opportunity. Breadbugs that look and taste like salt bread become a huge hit, bringing Jeong-han a new life, but unexpected problems arise one after another. Kim Hye-young’s Regulations for Raising Breadbugs begins with a realistic story of a young man’s move to the countryside and his new business, which eventually expands into bizarre incidents and ominous changes surrounding the breadbugs.

If even I, myself, couldn’t name my own feelings…


In A Name for Feelings by Janbo, an illustrator, we slowly encounter feelings that we didn’t even know existed in our everyday lives, brought to light through illustrations and writing. We discover that even feelings we dismissed because they were too difficult to describe have names that suit them, and as we turn each page, we are invited to examine the feelings that linger inside us. This essay is perfect for those who wish to look deeply into their indefinable emotions and give them names in their own language.

Poetry in Response is an anthology of poems by forty-seven Korean poets, with the subtitle “For, Toward Palestine.” Rather than observing what is happening from afar, the anthology seeks to respond through poetry, for and toward the voices of Palestine. The white kite on the cover is an image from the poem by Refaat Alareer, who was a poet and reporter from Gaza. It symbolizes a story that continues without being brought to an end and hope that never extinguishes. The Korean poets send stories into the sky on the kite, carrying them onward so no one’s story is lost.


Written by Chaeyeong Lee (Korean Literature Outreach Team)


Translated by Lisa Kim 

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