“From the sea to the city, from the city, a stake came before me.”
For the symbolic heart of human beings who live remembering the debts they owe to one another with light.
A thrilling mystery action film by Kim Hong, a storyteller of laughter and tears!

The Hankyoreh Literary Award, established in 1996 to promote the development and future of Korean literature, celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2025.
Meanwhile, the Hankyoreh Literary Award has established itself as the most credible full-length literary award for novels in Korea, discovering writers and works with outstanding abilities and individuality, such as Shim Yun-kyung's "My Beautiful Garden," Park Min-gyu's "The Last Fan Club of Sammi Superstars," Yoon Go-eun's "Zero Gravity Syndrome," Choi Jin-young's "The Name of the Girl Who Passed By You," Jang Kang-myeong's "Bleach," Lee Hyuk-jin's "The Lying Boat," Kang Hwa-gil's "Another Person," Park Seo-ryeon's "The Airship Girl Kang Ju-ryong," and Ha Seung-min's "Melanin."
The Hankyoreh Literary Award, which has long been loved by readers, is publishing its 30th award-winning work, “Stakes.”

The Hankyoreh Literary Award, which celebrated its 30th anniversary with an increased prize of 50 million won, selected Kim Hong's "Stakes" as this year's winner among a total of 349 entries, an increase of 110 from the previous year.
The eight judges cited “fun, straightforward writing, timeliness that reflects the martial law situation at a surprising pace, and narrative without preaching” as reasons for selecting the winning work.
The award received overwhelming support, praising the work as “a meaningful achievement that lives up to the 30-year trajectory of the Hankyoreh Literary Award and a work that revives the belief that literature is still a valid form of ethics,” as it “does not avoid the current political landscape and signs of crisis, but responds to them through literature.”
《Stakes》 begins with the bizarre premise that those who died unjustly, sadly, and lonely without a name are 'turned into corpses' and appear as 'stakes' all over the city.
“Focusing on the mystery of the emergence and disappearance of stakes, it offers a comprehensive view of 21st-century South Korea, encompassing everything from the corrupt politics and behavior of capital to the struggles of the common people, who must survive within that system, to the compassion and solidarity that ordinary people should possess.”

Literary critic Seo Young-in, who was in charge of judging the book, said that the most essential message conveyed by “Stakes” is “tears,” and that “the moment when the foreign worker who died from poisoning by toxic substances at a smelter, the delivery worker who crashed into India after not being able to sleep for four days, and the child who died after being hit by that delivery truck all appear as stakes, it becomes clear that these deaths are social deaths.” She praised the work as “tracing and reflecting on this social death and social sadness” and recorded it. Novelist Pyeon Hye-young said, “The ethics of mourning and solidarity that this novel touches on will come with a narrative vitality rarely seen in recent times and will plunge down into the reader like a solid stake.”
Novelist Kang Hwa-gil emphasized Kim Hong’s unique specialties as “sharply capturing and boldly depicting the point where the misfortune of the individual and the misfortune of the world meet,” while novelist Park Seo-ryeon emphasized “the destructive power of a long, sweeping novel that relentlessly shatters a person’s lifetime view of novels” and “a narrative that boldly rushes forward as if to redefine the relationship between the world we perceive and probability from the beginning.”
Novelist Shim Yun-kyung praised the novel for being “the will to overcome such wounds and helplessness that was finally put into print” in relation to the martial law regime we experienced just half a year ago, and novelist Jeong Ji-ah praised the novel for being “a novel that is so dizzying that it is entangled with mystery, politics, capital, class, and other grand discourses,” saying that it is so neat that it is simple and not distracting at all, and that it is a rare find that one can read an interesting work in one sitting.

Kim Hong, who began his career through the 2017 Dong-A Ilbo New Year's Literary Contest, has solidified his own literary world, shining with unique settings, eccentric imagination, and sharp insight into society, by publishing the full-length novels "Smoking Oreo," "Woof, Woof," and "Price King!!!."
“Stakes” is a work that the author worked on for about ten years after coming up with “Stakes of People Driven Upside Down” (Author’s Note, September 14, 2014) in 2014, before he even made his literary debut.
It stands out even more (judge Han Chang-hoon) in that it has achieved yet another evolution while maintaining its charms, such as a sharp sense of the times, unpredictable developments, and solid humor.
Having been active as a novelist for eight years, he won the Munhakdongne Novel Award in 2023 and has now won the Hankyoreh Literary Award for his fourth full-length novel, “Stakes,” so his future path is highly anticipated.

The next news story was about piles that had washed up on the west coast.
He said it was unprecedented.
The long row of stakes, parts of which were exposed by the low tide, remained vivid in Jang's mind.
Who did you go to see the stakes with? The scene immediately came to mind, like a still cut.
As with many other good and beautiful memories, Haeju was by his side.
There was a legend written on the sign that the dead would go out to the distant sea and become stakes.

--- p.25

And… …everyone lies to everyone.
From very small to very large.
--- p.26

No one can hit me.
Because those who want to harm others must risk themselves.
The world is confident in itself, but it is more vulnerable than it thinks.

--- p.35

Jang suddenly realized that they were office workers no different from himself.
There may have been many similarities, except that they both involved crime as a profession.
Ordinary people who expect to get off work at 6 o'clock but often can't, frequently work outside the office, and are dissatisfied with their lives...
Just a little sadistic.

--- p.53

thank god.
Still, that's a relief.
Because I'm not dead.
Jang sat down and cried, drying himself with a towel.

--- p.64

The heads of the stakes were smooth and without a single hair, and their faces were smooth as if they had just washed their faces.
They had been buried upside down in the mud for a very long time.
The skin, which had never been in contact with air or seawater, was mummified without any signs of decay.
While reading the article, I learned that this condition is called 'shiraphwa'.
Except for the dark complexion and the overall puffiness of his face, he looked like someone who had just fallen asleep with his eyes closed.
Because their eyes were closed and they had no distinct expressions, they all looked like one person's face.
Or it wouldn't be strange if it were everyone's face.

--- p.84

Jang needed that too.
I knew that I had to do that much to be on par with others.
It was even more desperate because I had fallen to the bottom.
Even though it was impossible for a bastard to become a nobleman, he had to run like a dog to at least serve as a servant in a nobleman's household.

--- p.89

Jang was also stingy when it came to other people's difficulties.
I felt like I knew why the world was going wrong with each passing day.

--- p.92

“Hey, what’s wrong with you?
are you okay?"
“It’s not okay.”
I couldn't remember when it was okay.
It seemed like the world was being particularly harsh on Jang.
Even if I think about it calmly, it really was like that.

--- p.121

What kind of disaster is it when the dead return as stakes? I was very curious about the position of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, which sent the text.

--- p.131

The stakes appeared in a way that seemed to appear out of nowhere.
It always came suddenly, whether it was when they first washed up on the beach, when they gathered together in the county gymnasium and then disappeared, or when they stood in the squares of major cities across the country.
No one has ever witnessed a stake move under its own power.
So it raised questions.
Opinions were divided as to where the ability to manifest them came from.

--- p.135

A blurry photo of the stakes and people moving busily around the wall and air dome that obscures the stakes.
The scenery in other cities, other than Gwanghwamun, was not much different.

--- p.143

Jang considered the possibility that his misfortune was connected to the world.
The appearance of unprecedented beings felt like a harbinger of greater misfortune.
The situation was so precarious that there was no need to be overconfident or show off one's misfortune, and it was becoming equally unstable.
It was so trivial to ask why everything that happened to me was happening to me.

--- p.143

If you think about it, the soul is definitely a representative overvalued asset.
It was the first step toward creative accounting.

--- p.157

A stake appeared in the lobby.
There is a pile standing in the middle of the first floor of the building.
From the sea to the city, from the city, a stake came before me.

--- p.158

The stakes did not appear in just one place.
It was a situation where people were getting closer one step at a time.
From the sea to the beach, from the beach to the city, from the city to you.

--- p.168

“Not everything in this world happens for a reason.
Some things are just accidents.
Everything in this world can happen or it can't happen.
I wonder why you think that something like that shouldn't happen to Jean in particular."
--- p.184

“I thought that somewhere out there, there must be someone crying like us right now.”
--- p.187

The collectors, who had hesitated for a moment, took off their masks one by one.
They greeted each other awkwardly, as if seeing each other for the first time.
I looked at the stakes I was trying to carry in my body bag and wiped my eyes one by one.
So, among the people who came out to the square, there was not a single one who did not cry.

--- p.210

Everyone was telling their stories as if they had been waiting for it.
I wrote about a memorable death that I remember.
It was clear to all of them that the unforgettable death had returned in the form of a stake.
Each of them sent a certified letter and uploaded a screenshot.
I wrote and filed an application for an injunction and also wrote a petition to submit to the court.
The records of nameless stakes were piling up.

--- p.247

Accidents, minor accidents, major accidents, accidents for which measures have been taken and the outcome has not been confirmed to the end.
And the names kept coming up.
There were too many names.
It was realistic to see that there was no way to pinpoint the name Jang was looking for.
The pain was so immense and unclear.
It took a long time to verify the truth buried beneath the documents.

--- p.258

“Temelin.”
Nothing changed.
One more time.
“Temelin, we must go back now.
“I will remember you.”
--- p.278

Temelin, you're going to go all the way without paying me back.
Take care.
Don't pay my debt and keep holding on to it.
Don't be sad, I'll always remember you for that.
The truth that big debt makes big riches always holds true.
But our debt is different from theirs.
He who owes nothing to anyone is poor in heart.
There are people who write down the feelings they have given to each other in a notebook so that they do not forget, and live their entire lives remembering that debt.
This will convince the world someday.

--- pp.279-280