prelude
Act 1
Act 2
Act 3
coda
curtain call

Author's Note
Acknowledgements

★ 2024 Book of the Year
★ 2024 Leeds Book Club Selection
★ 2024 Amazon Editors' Pick
★ Strongly recommended by 30 influential media outlets, including the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Kirkus Review.

“If ‘Beasts of a Small Land’ is a symphony, ‘City of Nightbirds’ is a concerto.”
Beasts of a Small Land: Exploring the Roots of Korean Identity
After three years, he returns with "City of Night Watchmen," a project of his artistic self.

Author Kim Joo-hye, who left a strong impression on readers around the world with just one debut novel, has published her second full-length novel after three years.
His previous work, Beasts of a Small Land, which made his name known and established his identity as a writer with Korean roots, received attention from the American press as “a novel that showed the world the painful history of the Republic of Korea.” After being translated into Korean, it received praise from readers in his home country as “the most Korean story,” a rare compliment for a translated work.
And finally, he achieved the international achievement of receiving the 'Tolstoy Literature Prize (Yasnaya Polyana Prize),' the most prestigious literary award in Russia, awarded by the Tolstoy Foundation.


The author, who in his previous work depicted history, love, and the human instinct for survival like a symphony through characters who experienced the turmoil of colonial Korea, has in this novel depicted the inner war fought by an artist on the ballet stage of St. Petersburg like a concerto.
The author who made readers' hearts flutter in the small land of South Korea where wild beasts roar takes us to Russia, the city of ballet where night birds soar gracefully.
Even as time and space change, the splendid and bold style of writing that sublimates the dignity and aspirations that humans ultimately embrace amidst suffering, and the essence of life, into literature remains unchanged.


“Love sets no one free.
But with art, it is possible.”
The prima ballerina's final leap, risking her life for a single, perfect leap.

Natalia, a dancer who has lived her life believing that the only way to avoid getting hurt is to be the first to leave.
Like his father who abandoned him and disappeared in his childhood, he constantly wanders from city to city, from person to person.
Set against the backdrop of three cities - St. Petersburg, Moscow and Paris - his dazzling and lonely life unfolds on the fiercely contested stages of the ballet world, where ambition and competition, art and politics collide.
Natalia, who gave everything to become the world's best dancer, falls to the deepest rock just as she soars to the highest point.


After a near-fatal accident and a two-year hiatus, Natalia returns to St. Petersburg.
This city, like an old love, keeps reminding him of the people who hurt him.
His mother, who loved him in a strict manner, his father, who suddenly left him soon after he was born, and the two men who led him to his downfall come back to life like ghosts before his eyes, preventing him from settling down here.
Dmitry, a former rival and admirer of Natalia's ballet company, is now the director of a famous ballet company and offers her a return to the stage.
Although he was the most famous dancer of his time, he cannot readily agree to this when he thinks about his current reality of relying on drugs and alcohol to forget the pain.
Will you return to the world that almost destroyed you, or will you leave it forever?
Natalia faces a potentially life-changing choice: will she reunite with the people who have been with her through her best and darkest times, or will she walk away as she always has?

“Desperation has been a constant throughout my life.”
The irony of life is that the more desperate you are, the deeper the wounds you must endure.

Life always demands a price.
Natalia learned at a young age that you don't get anything until you give of yourself.
For her, who became a world-class ballerina, desperation was a prerequisite for life.
What people's neglect, his lover's betrayal, and his mother's death taught him was that life was not about love, happiness, or hope, but about anxiety, sadness, and anger.
But art sprouts from hunger rather than abundance, from anxiety rather than comfort.
Ironically, such emotions made his artistry shine even brighter.
Unable to rely on anything else, Natalia devoted her whole body and soul to art and sought to become art itself.
Because only when I was flying against gravity could I feel free from all pain.


"The City of Night Watchmen" delicately examines the life of a human being wavering between ideals and reality, love and loss.
It poses the fundamental question of life: “What should I give up and what should I keep?” and explores the tenacity of human nature that does not give up even in the pain that inevitably accompanies achieving something.
In that sense, this novel is a tribute to the art of life.
It is a metaphor for the nobility of humanity that never loses its dignity even in the midst of trials, and a metaphor for the brilliant lives of all of us who have gone through moments so desperate that we have endured deep wounds.

“All the beauty and tragedy of life lies in the gap between what could have been and what ended up being.”
About the beauty of life that can only be enjoyed by those who have lived through a time when they devoted their whole heart to it, even if only once.

There comes a time in everyone's life when you want to push yourself to the limit and prove yourself, even if it means enduring intense pain.
This book is a record of that very moment.
Anyone who has gone through, or is going through, waves of irreversible choices and irreversible emotions will find themselves overlapping their own lives with this story.
For what purpose am I enduring this pain? "The City of Nights" depicts life as a cycle, a dance of grace, a cycle of love and life's stages, a cycle of rebirth, a cycle of rebirth, a cycle of rebirth, a cycle of rebirth. For those who embrace their shattered aspirations and strive to soar again, it offers profound comfort, recognizing that even the process itself is beautiful.
In the story of a man whose desperation was his lifelong constant, we will be reminded of how desperate and brilliant we once were.


“No matter how far a bird flies, it eventually returns home.”
The human vitality that defies gravity and rises again while falling

Another important symbol is the image of the 'bird', which appears repeatedly throughout the novel.
In this novel, birds are not simply natural objects, but are a key motif that simultaneously symbolizes the instincts of life and tragedy, obsession and return, and the helplessness of free will.
Why would a flock of crows risk their lives and return to the place they came from, knowing they would be attacked by hawks?
The answer is simple.
“Because it’s home.
Returning to one's nest is a very strong instinct.
“More intense than the fear of death.” In this way, the ‘night’ in ‘City of Night Watchmen’ is a metaphor for humans who instinctively repeat returning in existential situations.
Flying is a symbol of freedom, but it is also a symbol of desperation, anxiety, and a struggle for survival.
This image of repeated wingbeats and returns exquisitely overlaps with the protagonist Natalia's fall from the top, the cracks in her love and art, and her attempts to return to the stage despite physical and mental pain.
He burns everything he has to jump, but at the end of that flight, a fall always awaits.
Despite this, he cannot leave the stage and returns again.
Because that place is soon to be their 'city', their 'home'.
Does having wings mean everyone is free? No.
What is it about the heart that soars again, knowing there's no escape? That's desperation, that's life.

“His style is poetic and beautiful, reminiscent of the old Russian masters.” _BBC
Classic yet modern, intimate yet grand, a sentence that only Kim Joo-hye can write.

"City of Night Watchmen" is an extension of the previous work, but is even more intimate.
The author masterfully crafts a complex narrative where the inner self of a human being intersects with the harshness of art and the rapidly changing times.
It tenaciously explores the human psyche, which is constantly wavering between love and hurt, jealousy and longing, inferiority complex and self-esteem.
The conflict and love with the mother, the friendship swayed by jealousy, and even the inferiority complex that grew in competition and alienation - emotions that could not be expressed exist in 'precise language' in the novel.
Reading Kim Joo-hye's novels is like having someone express the most complex emotions within me.
As Natalia recounts her past and confronts the nature of love, the imperfections of family, and the long-standing rift between self-esteem and the need for recognition, we discover emotions we never knew we had, and experience the emotional catharsis of healing and insight.
Furthermore, as the ballet is set in the world of advanced art, the terminology and scene descriptions are elaborately and densely woven to add vividness, and the sensual descriptions of the landscapes of each city stimulate the five senses.

Author's Note

The starting point of all my work is always a feeling of heartache.
An insight into life that wells up from the depths of your heart like a sudden storm.
At that moment, I knew I was going to write that story right away.
Then, from that point on, the race begins to pour out those emotions onto paper.
It is a magic that can never be controlled or denied.
Like the gift of the Muses that captivated the ancient poets.
That's how "City of Night Watchmen" started.
In the spring of 2021, when my editor asked me, “What are you going to write next?” I answered without hesitation, “A novel about ballet.”
I shared a brief outline, but the editor who discovered and supported my first novel seemed hesitant.
The reason was that “ballet novels generally don’t sell well.”
I said.
“I will write this piece exactly as I imagined it.
And if even the finished manuscript doesn't convince you, I'll gladly accept that decision." (This was before my debut novel, Beasts of a Small Land, was published.)

So while I was promoting my first book, I continued writing this ballet novel.
And in January 2022, I received a grant to go to Russia to research materials for "City of Night Watchmen."
It felt like a sign that my choice was right.
I started preparing for my trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg.
But a month later, Russia invaded mainland Ukraine, and I had to abandon all my plans.
Not only was it a risky trip, but the very act of publishing a novel with Russia as its main setting became dangerous.
But I still believed in my concept of a love story between an artist and his art.
Rather, the political situation strengthened my resolve to demonstrate the power of art to transcend borders and restore a common human sensibility.

I have always donated a portion of the proceeds from every book I have written to a long-term non-profit partner.
In "City of Nights," we sought to raise awareness of the food insecurity in Africa, which has become more severe since the invasion of Ukraine.
Currently I am working with Caritas Somalia.
The organization works comprehensively in the world's most marginalized regions, providing emergency relief, community development, education, and climate change response.
Ongoing solidarity is a very important value to me, and I plan to continue providing material and intangible support for a long time to come.

Of course, at the time I was writing the first draft, I had no idea whether this novel would actually be published.
I just wrote down that one painful emotion that moved me.
But in the summer of 2023, despite numerous external changes, my editor read the finished manuscript and loved it.
And the news that I was selected for the Reese Witherspoon Book Club was another blessing.

In October 2024, I was finally able to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg.
This was because he won the Tolstoy Literature Prize (Yasnaya Polyana Prize) for his first novel, Beasts of a Small Land.
The award ceremony took place at the Bolshoi Theatre, and I was given a backstage tour, stepping into the very space where my novel's protagonist, Natalia Leonova, dances "like a comet."
The judges, Tolstoy's descendants, and fellow writers and critics gave me a warm welcome.
In fact, the majority of the Russian art world does not support the war.
A true artist cannot help but desire peace.
And this is what 『City of Night Watchmen』 is trying to say.

This book is about many things: my long-time love of ballet, music, the light and shadows created by love and desire, but ultimately, it is about the essence of art.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of you who read this book.