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May-June New Releases: Sustaining, Connecting, Moving Forward scrap download

지탱하고, 연결되어 결국 나아가는 우리를 위해, 5~6월 신간 도서입니다

KLWAVE introduces international readers to various works of Korean literature. “New Releases” showcases works that have been published between May and June 2024, selected by Kyobo Book Centre as “Book of the Month” and by Aladin as “Magician’s Choice.”


The Seoul International Book Fair was held over five days from June 26th to 30th. The event was reportedly a success, bringing 20,000 more visitors than last year.

Among the visitors may have been those who came to the fair just to vainly show off themselves at the book fair on social media and didn’t read a single book they have purchased.

However, thanks to those readers who are willing to purchase books in their own ways, books and literature still exist. That is how readers are connected through books, creating a new era of literary consumption.

As we hope readers continue to firmly support and love Korean literature, we introduce some noteworthy new publications in May and June. There has been a wide variety of genres to choose from, enough to entertain both Korean and international readers.


For those interested in the fantasy genre, the latest volume of the Children of the Rune series is now available. Volume 7 of the popular series that sold over 1.6 million copies in Korea depicts the story after Charlotte learns the secret of her birth. Shaker, a time-slipping fantasy highly anticipated overseas, is a story about repeated time travel that sends a message that doing one’s best here and now is what’s most important.


There are also essays that will comfort those dealing with their own hardships in life. Kim Miok, who earned fame by recommending books on Facebook, wittily recounts her troubled life in The Tale of Miogi. Kim Hoon, the author of The Song of the Sword, published his new essay collection Wasted Years, reflecting on life and death at the age of eighty with his quintessential prose.


Dazzling poetic proses ponder upon life with their refined language. An Heeyeon, the poet of What I Learned on the Summer Hill capturing the colors of summer, has released her fourth collection, Walking in the Carrot Field, and Kim Eunji of Summer Coat published Drinking Beer From a Giant Mug. There are also works that take us to the border between life and death. Hwang Tong-gyu’s Caught In the Spring Rain contains the realizations he gained as he continues his life in his old age. The calm yet dignified words of Cha Do-ha, who passed away at the age of twenty-four, are recorded in The Hand of the Future.


In the third volume of the bestselling young-adult novel series Fifteen for the Five Hundredth Year, the story of Gaeul continues as she learns about love, friendship, and dreams in an exciting plot set in a unique world. Kkoch-nim Lee, the author of Killing Your Friend, a book beloved by young adults worldwide with its rights sold to eight countries, has completed the novel’s sequel to capture deepened characters after the first volume. The Seventh First Love by Jang Irang depicts a coming-of-age story about budding love and friendship, the two biggest universes that make up a teenager’s world.


In his first short story collection, Two People’s International, Kim Kitae, one of the most sought-after new talents in the literary world at the moment, consoles those we often see around us with a dry yet affectionate tone. Choi Jin Young, a young female writer at the forefront of the Korean literary world and the author of To the Warm Horizon, faces various issues in our lives in her own language in Things to be Written, as she always has.


Cho Yeeun of The New Seoul Park Jelly Massacre has published her latest novel, Fins in the Mouth. The story of young love set in a world combining the fables of mermaids and sirens is sad yet mesmerizing. Kim Jiyun of Yeonnam-Dong’s Smiley Laundromat, of which rights are sold to fourteen countries internationally, invites the readers again into the heartwarming and hearty world of See You Again.


Translated by Joheun Lee joheunlee@gmail.com


Joheun Lee (Jo) is a literary translator from Korea. She was selected in the 2023 and 2024 Translation Academy Night Courses from LTI Korea, the American Literary Translators Association's inaugural Building Our Future workshop for emerging BIPOC translators, and the 2023-24 National Centre for Writing's Emerging Translator Mentorship for Korean-English translation.

A long-time fan of K-pop and many other subcultures, she finds herself drawn to works on related topics and speculative fiction, especially by women and queer writers. A UX Designer by day, Jo now lives with her partner and three cats in Shanghai, China.

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