Korean Literature

Step into the enchanting world of Korea's most beloved fairy tales, retold and expanded for a new generation. Originally collected by the renowned American scholar William Elliot Griffis, Korean Fairy Tales Revived introduces timeless stories of gods, heroes, talking animals, and spirits that have been passed down through generations.

In the war-torn streets of 1950s Seoul, Min-ji, a young seamstress, stitches together a life for her mother and ailing sister amidst the chaos of the Korean War. When she meets James, an American soldier with plains-wide eyes and a gentle heart, a fragile love blooms, promising a visa and a new life in America. But when tragedy strikes and James is lost to the front lines, Min-ji’s dreams unravel, leaving her a widow with an expiring visa and a desperate fight to remain in her homeland.

Moving beyond the quasi-fraternal bond of the unforgettable George and Lenny from Of Mice and Men, Hurt You explores the actual sibling bond of Georgia and Leonardo da Vinci Daewoo Kim, who has an unnamed neurological disability that resembles autism. The themes of race, disability, and class spin themselves out in a suburban high school where the Kim family has moved in order to access better services for Leonardo.

When his jet malfunctions, Captain Ward Millar makes a last-second decision to eject over enemy territory in North Korea before his plane explodes. His parachute barely opens before impact, saving his life, but the hard landing snaps both of his ankles. Unable to walk, Captain Millar is easily captured by North Korean and Chinese soldiers. His captors interrogate, threaten, and starve him in an attempt to extract strategic wartime information. He stalls the inevitable by feeding the enemy false information, but it’s only a matter of time before they discover his lies.

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.

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.

It’s finally summer break, and twelve-year-old Yumi is headed to Korea with her older sister, Minji, for the very first time. She can’t wait to explore the city of Seoul together—but Minji has other plans. The moment they land, Minji ditches Yumi to hang out with their cousins, who are more fashionable, better at soccer, and all-around cooler than Yumi. Lost and alone, Yumi is stuck at home painting with her grandfather. Everything changes when she finds an intriguing ink brush in a neighborhood art shop.

Zwischen Sturm und Schicksal. Jedes Jahr wüten in Minas Heimat tödliche Stürme. Und jedes Jahr wird das schönste Mädchen in die Fluten geworfen. Denn eines Tages, so die Legenden, soll die wahre Braut des Meeresgottes auserwählt werden und den Unwettern ein Ende bereiten. Doch dieses Jahr greift Minas Bruder in das Ritual ein und gerät dabei in Lebensgefahr. Um ihn zu retten, opfert Mina sich freiwillig. Im Reich der Geister stellt sie allerdings fest, dass auf dem Meeresgott ein Fluch liegt.

Judith's struggles to fit in as a half-Korean, half-Jewish kid in a tough urban neighborhood. But music lessons gave her a purpose and passion. Then chaos strikes: Judith's first love, who dumped her decades ago, returns to dazzle her with his golden pedigree and brilliant career. Her long-absent father arrives out of the blue with a snazzy car and a con man's patter, turning her mother into a love-struck flirt whom Judith barely recognizes.

The Korean Soul: A Collection of Poems by H. C. Kim explores themes and ideas that are of importance to Koreans around the world, such as the current stand-off between South Korea and North Korea. By hearing H. C. Kim's poems, the listener will be able to see through the soul of Koreans. These poems are powerful testimonies to collective experiences of a people who boast 5,000+ years of history.

Kate Daniels is a co-pilot aboard the space shuttle Liberty. Liberty is to deploy a space defense system satellite created with the latest American technology. The shuttle crash-lands in the uncharted, mountainous frontier between North Korea and China. As the ranking able-bodied officer, Kate takes charge, evacuating the crew from the crash site. A mountain warlord captures the Liberty's crew, intending to sell the shuttle and its cargo to the highest bidder. On the world stage, this crisis rapidly escalates. The North Koreans forbid an American search and rescue operation, sending their own troops into the region instead.

North Korea has achieved a breakthrough with nuclear warheads and is about to arm their strategic missiles - weapons that could set the world ablaze. The Echo Six unit commander, Abe Talley, is ordered to take his men across the 38th Parallel. Their mission is to locate and destroy the nukes, as well as their creators. They must enter the heart of the most secretive, repressive, and brutal nation on Earth - and somehow find a way back.

Mina is a professional pickpocket and thief for a huge South Korean conglomerate (chaebol) into which she was born. Having brought great shame to the chaebol as a teenager, she is obligated to work as a criminal for them. This chaebol is also a crime syndicate. She desperately wants out of her dangerous and depressing existence. She sees a ray of hope in the character of Sienna who is the complete opposite to her. She becomes obsessed with Sienna to the point she complicates things on a truly horrific scale.

Two young women of vastly different means each struggle to find her own way during the darkest hours of South Korea’s “economic miracle” in a striking debut novel for readers of Anthony Marra and Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie. Seoul, 1978. At South Korea’s top university, the nation’s best...

Jonas Stuyvesant's silver-spoon upbringing has not prepared him for the horrors of war. When Communist North Korea launches a surprise invasion of the South, Jonas finds himself leading his platoon against a well-trained, battle-hardened army. Soviet-made tanks break through the American lines. These are not the pitchfork-wielding peasants he expected. What should have been an easy victory turns into a devastating rout. Jonas and his men begin their retreat down the Peninsula, fighting a rear-guard action.

A boy of just six years old, Austin Roberts found himself perpetually in the way at the post-funeral gathering of his great uncle Jack. Frustrated and alone, he wandered out onto the front porch to find his great uncle Cat, Jack's brother, sitting alone, an old album on his lap. Oblivious to the world around them, the two begin an unlikely conversation and together embark on a journey that stretches almost seven decades in length.

The Korean Spirit: Poems is a collection of poems that captures the hopes and the fears of ethnic Koreans around the world. Korean anxiety, heightened by the inclusion of North Korea as an axis of evil power impeding the Korean aspiration for a united Korea, has created a search for harmony among Korean individuals and Korean groups. Many of the poems in this collection express the collectively, although often privately, shared sentiment of the Korean people regarding global politics and international relations.

After catching her fiancé cheating, Naomi spirals emotionally. One rainy night, she drunkenly returns to the house they once shared—only to discover that it’s no longer his. The new owner, Minjae Park, is calm, kind, and startlingly handsome. His peaceful spirit and quiet faith contrast deeply with the chaos in Naomi’s heart. As Naomi begins to heal, the two form a slow-burning friendship rooted in trust, compassion, and shared spiritual values. But both carry past wounds.

Based on a true story. As the Korean War threatens to ignite a global nuclear inferno, the fate of the free world rests on a razor's edge, while on the home front, two towering American titans – the resolute President Truman and the legendary General MacArthur – engage in a perilous battle of wills that could either avert Armageddon or tear the nation apart.

In a Seoul slum marked for demolition, residents’ shadows have begun to rise. No one knows how or why—but, they warn each other, do not follow your shadow if it wanders away. Employees of a small electronics repair shop, Eungyo and Mujae can only watch their tight-knit community begin to fade as the landscape of their lives is torn apart, building by building. Their growing connection with one another provides solace, but against an uncaring ruling class and the inevitability of the rising shadows, their relationship may not be enough.