7 with a ghostly heart
It doesn't light up 33
Summer is like water color 73
On a strange night we were 107
I should go home and sleep 139
Hibernating Man 177
Not Alaska, but 205
Curtain Call, Overtime, Last Fang 235

Author's Note 261
Commentary on the work
A Story That Saves the Heart_Hwang Ye-in (Literary Critic) 264
Recommendation_Park Sol-moe (novelist) 279

Because the place we live in is already strange

No matter what happens in life, Lim Seon-woo's characters are ready to accept it.
Even when a ghost that looks exactly like me is sleeping on the bakery counter, 'I' am only briefly startled, and from that day on, I share everything with the ghost. ("With a Ghost's Heart") Even when a strange man asks 'I' to bury him in the mountain so that he can hibernate, having turned into a cold-blooded animal, 'I' am only briefly troubled, and then picks up a shovel and climbs the mountain with the man. ("The Hibernating Man") When we see 'I' who immediately accepts whatever happens, we are reminded of a world that has already become as strange as it can be.
As I wonder how the characters can be so nonchalant, I am reminded of more horrific and shocking events we have experienced in real life.
In a world like this, there is no way to not believe in even a small illusion.
Ultimately, we find ourselves nodding along to the characters' willingness and surprising adaptability.

The thoughtful face of someone deeply thinking about someone

The characters in 『With a Ghost's Heart』 have deep-seated expressions.
However, if at the beginning of the novel he had a face full of worries, immersed in his own bleak reality, by the end of the novel he has a face engrossed in deep thought about someone.
The heavy expression from a hard life is transformed into a face passionate about loving and caring for someone.
Lim Seon-woo's novel captures in detail the subtle moments when such profound changes occur within the characters' inner selves.
In "Curtain Call, Overtime, Last Fang," 'I' is hit by a Chinese restaurant sign that falls in a gust of wind and dies instantly. During the last 100 hours granted to me in this world, I struggle to fulfill the dream of a ghost I met for the first time instead of my own wish.
As I succeed in making the ghost song that was my dream of becoming an idol resonate throughout every corner of the city, I finally begin to guess about my own dream that I thought I would never know.
In "It Doesn't Shine," the 'I' listens to the story of a customer who turned into a jellyfish at a job he got after giving up his dream, and ponders what makes him most human.
Like the promise in the last sentence, “I will only think of the light that Ji-seon saw, just one light,” that thought illuminates even the light that my life has lost.


The firm face of someone who wants to build a strong life

Lim Seon-woo's characters are careful to care for others, but they do not neglect to take care of their own lives.
They can sense the extent of the grief the other person must have endured and are able to express their own grief as well, but rather than relying on each other completely, they decide to build their own strong lives.
As critic Hwang Ye-in explains, “They each pass through their own time with their own strength, and thanks to that strength, they can coexist while keeping the other at an appropriate distance,” the characters consistently maintain their own places in life.
Just like the two characters in "Summer is Like Water," 'I' and 'San', each carrying the pain of their loved ones dying or disappearing, calmly share their daily routines with each other.
Just like the two friends in "On a Strange Night" who often meet and eat together, they are reluctant to talk about each other's difficulties.
The moderate warmth of the relationship that Lim Seon-woo displays becomes a scene that seems like the answer to those who are struggling in the difficult reality and tangled relationships.
Within the relationship he presents, we can stand for a long time without falling.