Korean Literature

Set against the backdrop of the 2002 World Cup and rising anti-American sentiment due to a deadly tank accident involving two young Korean girls, The Korean Word for Butterfly is told from three alternating points-of-view.

돈암동 후배네 집에 놀러갔던 '나'는 한국전쟁 막바지, 돈암동 안감천변에 살던 첫사랑 그 남자를 떠올린다. '나'는 미군부대를 다니며 가족의 생계를 책임지고 있었다. 그러다 먼 친척뻘로, 홍예문이 달린 널찍한 기와집에 사는 부유한 집안의 막내아들이자 상이군인이자 문학과 예술을 좋아하는 청년인 그를 만난다. '생존'만이 가치 있던 그 시절, 그 남자의 문학과 음악과 낭만, 그리고 사랑은 빛이 났고 그 자체로 사치스러웠다.

Soma's mother, T.M. Song, was a storyteller and this is a tale she used to tell her daughters when they were little girls. Her mother had told it to her when she was growing up in a rural village in Korea during the reign of King Kojong.... The underlying lesson is filial piety, respect for one's parents, presented in an engrossing Oriental Cinderella story.

When Eugene Kim assembles his three estranged daughters at his deathbed, he means to put them to the test. Vicious and pathetic in equal measure, he wants to test who will abject themselves for his favor—and, more importantly, his fortune. Each isolated and desperate to escape their circumstances, the sisters wrestle with the legacy of their abusive father as they attempt to imagine a future with others—colleagues, lovers, friends, family—as rage and shame courses through their blood.

Riley Jo is a teenager who knows what she wants. Born and raised in Bentonville, Arkansas, this Korean American girl has her sights set on being a musician. So when her parents are surprisingly cool about her attending the prestigious Los Angeles-based arts-focused boarding school her senior year of high school, she jumps at the chance. This is her moment to make her indie rock dreams a reality!

Seventeen-year-old Bucky Yi knows nothing about his birth country of South Korea or his bio-dad's disappearance; he can't even pronounce his Korean name correctly. Running through the woods of rural Washington State with a tire tied to his waist, his sights are set on one all-American goal: to become a college football player. So when a misadventure with his adoptive family leads the US government to deport him to South Korea, he's forced to navigate an entirely foreign version of his life.

In 1948, Najin and Calvin Cho, with their young daughter Miran, travel from South Korea to the United States in search of new opportunities. Wary of the challenges they know will face them, Najin and Calvin make the difficult decision to leave their other daughter, Inja, behind with their extended family; soon, they hope, they will return to her. But then war breaks out in Korea, and there is no end in sight to the separation. Miran grows up in prosperous American suburbia as Inja grapples in her war-torn land with ties to a family she doesn't remember.

숙향전'은 어린 소녀 숙향이 부모님을 잃고, 갖은 고난 속에서 성장해가는 이야기입니다. 숙향은 주어진 운명에 따라 자신이 겪어야 할 시련을 모두 거친 뒤에야 사랑하는 낭군과 부모님을 만날 수 있었습니다. 그 속에서 벌어지는 사건과 옥황상제, 용왕, 선녀와 같이 현실에서 볼 수 없는 인물들의 등장은 흥미진진하고 환상적입니다. 우리 모두 숙향이 들려주는 상상의 세계로 함께 떠나 볼까요?

Jackie Oh is done being your model minority. She’s tired of perfect GPAs, PSATs, SATs, all of it. Jackie longs to become a professional chef. But her Korean American parents are Ivy League corporate workaholics who would never understand her dream. Just ask her brother, Justin, who hasn’t heard from them since he was sent to Rikers Island. Jackie works at her grandparents’ Midtown Manhattan deli after school and practices French cooking techniques at night—when she should be studying.

Gary Pak has emerged as one of the most important Asian Hawaiian writers of our time. In this new collection, Pak expertly crafts a memorable cast of Hawai'i's Korean Americans, Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Native Hawaiians, amplifying our cross-cultural understanding of Hawaiian life today.

기괴한 요괴 레스토랑에서 벌어지는 시아의 신비한 모험. 우연히 발견한 고양이에게 이끌려 기괴한 레스토랑에 들어가게 된 주인공 시아. 레스토랑 주인인 해돈에게 자신의 심장이 먹힐 위기에 처한다.

정원사에게 선물 받은 약초를 구하고 말리며 어느새 시아와 쥬드는 둘도 없는 친구가 된다. 게다가 시아는 레스토랑에서의 첫 번째 미션을 수행하며 요괴들의 도움을 받게 되는데, 이들의 도움을 탐탁지 않게 생각하는 이가 있으니 바로 하츠였다. 루이의 공연장에서 만난 시아와 하츠. 하츠는 시아를 불러 친구들을 향한 경고를 하는데....

시아는 두 번째 임무인 레스토랑에서의 업무를 수행하던 중, 자신 때문에 쥬드가 위험에 빠지게 되고, 임수 완수와 우정 둘 중 하나를 결정해야 하는 문제에 빠진다. 고민하는 시아에게 던진 하츠의 말은 그녀를 더욱 힘들게만 한다. 하지만 이 또한 그들의 계략이었음을 깨닫고 시아는 더욱 큰 죄책감에 빠지게 된다.

Helena Rho was six years old when her family left Seoul, Korea, for America and its opportunities. Years later, her Korean-ness behind her, Helena had everything a model minority was supposed to want: she was married to a white American doctor and had a beautiful home, two children, and a career as an assistant professor of pediatrics. For decades she fulfilled the expectations of others. All the while Helena kept silent about the traumas - both professional and personal - that left her anxious yet determined to escape.

『관통하는 마음』은 제7회 교보문고 스토리공모전 대상을 수상한 작품이다. 공모전의 심사위원들 역시 작가의 스토리텔링 능력에 '한국판 코니 윌리스' '페이지 터너'라는 찬사와 함께 높은 점수를 주었다. 그야말로 스토리가 지닌 힘을 보여주는 소설이다. 50대 아줌마의 평범한 듯 평범하지 않은 일상이 이렇게나 몰입할 만한 이야깃거리인가 의문을 가질 틈도 없이 독자들은 이야기의 흐름을 자연스럽게 빠지게 될 것이다.

형사라는 직업은 고독하다. 결코 가정에 뿌리를 내릴 수가 없다. 가족과 약속을 했다 하더라도 사건이 터지면 언제든지 출동을 해야 하는 것이 그들의 사명이다. 그는 딸과 아내와 행복한 가정을 꿈꾸었고 이루었다. 그런 행복은 하루아침에 절망으로 변했다. 딸과 아내를 한꺼번에 잃은 그는 예전과 같은 삶으로 돌아갈 수가 없다. 죽지 못해 삶을 이어가고 있지만 마음은 항상 그들 곁에 있으며 눈은 언제나 그날 이전의 행복했던 시절을 쫓아가고 있다. 그의 영혼과 육체는 결코 회복할 수 없는 상처를 입었다.

This audiobook contains touching accounts of struggles and achievements of Korean Americans and serves an important primary source material for understanding the Korean teenage experience in the United States. This audiobook contains biographical accounts of a diverse group Korean Americans. Kenny Yoon, a junior at Horace Mann School in New York, is a part of the gifted music program at The Julliard School. Kenny describes how he came to play violin and how he hopes to bring joy to people through music.

눈덩이처럼 불어나는 엄마의 병원비가 버거워서였을까. 서현은 마주 앉은 남자의 제안에 일순 마음이 흔들렸다. 그런 그녀를 예의 무료한 눈빛으로 바라보는 남자, 최지환.

Years later, the Korean War is a distant memory for the parents hosting their children for a Christmas party. But when an old photograph rekindles those memories, they're soon wrapped up in telling their children how they fell in love. As a nurse and a downed pilot, they'd found themselves on the run from the enemy - but the only thing that could snare them was true love.

For the first time, Euna Lee - the young wife, mother, and film editor detained in North Korea - tells a harrowing, but ultimately inspiring, story of survival and faith in one of the most isolated parts of the world. On March 17, 2009, Lee and her Current TV colleague Laura Ling were working on a documentary about the desperate lives of North Koreans fleeing their homeland for a chance at freedom when they were violently apprehended by North Korean soldiers.