City Fiction
 |
Description
Book Introduction
- A word from MD
-
Seven Stories about the CityA collection of themed novels dealing with the 'city'.
Seven artists, each building a colorful world of works, tell stories about the city in their own way, depicting aspects of a world where familiarity and unfamiliarity, reality and fantasy are intertwined.
Along with the novel, the back of the book features interviews with the authors, sharing their thoughts on the city.
July 3, 2020. Novel/Poetry PD Park Hyung-wook
Jo Nam-joo, Jeong Yong-jun, Lee Joo-ran, Jo Soo-kyung, Lim Hyeon, Jeong Ji-don, Kim Cho-yeop
Seven Stories About What We Call Cities
What does your city look like now? Seven writers, active across genres, have published a collection of themed short stories, "City Fiction," offering a fresh perspective on their daily lives and their cities.
It includes interviews with authors about the cities they live in, along with seven short stories.
The writers describe cracks, big and small, against the backdrop of Jongmyo Shrine, Kyobo Bookstore in Gwanghwamun, and the Ulsan Skywalk.
The feelings, moods, and atmosphere that only those who have been to that place know are gradually distorted and overturned by the imagination of seven people, filling the city we know with new colors.
The unfamiliar landscape of the familiar city they unfolded reaches us even more deeply now, when even our hearts have shrunk from the repetitive, stifling daily routine.
Seven Stories About What We Call Cities
What does your city look like now? Seven writers, active across genres, have published a collection of themed short stories, "City Fiction," offering a fresh perspective on their daily lives and their cities.
It includes interviews with authors about the cities they live in, along with seven short stories.
The writers describe cracks, big and small, against the backdrop of Jongmyo Shrine, Kyobo Bookstore in Gwanghwamun, and the Ulsan Skywalk.
The feelings, moods, and atmosphere that only those who have been to that place know are gradually distorted and overturned by the imagination of seven people, filling the city we know with new colors.
The unfamiliar landscape of the familiar city they unfolded reaches us even more deeply now, when even our hearts have shrunk from the repetitive, stifling daily routine.
- You can preview some of the book's contents.
Preview
index
Jo Nam-joo "Do you know Spring Day Dad?"
Jeong Yong-jun's "Snow"
Lee Ju-ran: "Nothing special?"
Cho Soo-kyung: "5 p.m., fireworks are on the Han River."
Lim Hyeon, "A Quiet Future"
Jeong Ji-don's "Infinite Island"
Kim Cho-yeop's "Cabin Equation"
Jeong Yong-jun's "Snow"
Lee Ju-ran: "Nothing special?"
Cho Soo-kyung: "5 p.m., fireworks are on the Han River."
Lim Hyeon, "A Quiet Future"
Jeong Ji-don's "Infinite Island"
Kim Cho-yeop's "Cabin Equation"
Detailed image
Into the book
"Hyung, did Palazium go up or not? It's the same? Palazium is the Seoyoung-dong captain's apartment, so if Palazium keeps going, Dong-A, Hyundai, and Woosung can all catch up."
"Why are you asking me that? I wish I could just keep going," the thought rose to my throat, but I forced myself to swallow it.
The soccer club's older brother spat on the field and said, "Those who were born to good parents should do well," and then strode off first.
--- p.21 From "Do you know Spring Day Dad?"
But you know what?
I feel like that inexplicable feeling is definitely a place.
I think that feeling and that feeling are the same.
A place you can go to, stay in, see, and thus describe.
--- p.89 From "Snow"
It was past midnight, past 2 o'clock, and in my mother's room, there was my mother, the room, and me. My mother's snoring was small, the room was small, my crying was small, everything was small, it was that kind of night.
It was a night when I felt a sense of emptiness, thinking that the arson by the man downstairs had solved a long-standing problem I had been struggling with.
--- p.99 From "Nothing special?"
Yang Seung-mi may not have known that she had been pushed out of her old neighborhood and out of Seoul, and that she had eventually had to move far away.
I didn't even know that I had posted a fake sale on Joonggonara because I had no choice but to live there, because I really had no other choice.
An apartment complex in the name of Yeonseok on the Han River.
If that place is ever rebuilt, where will some of the people who lived there go?
Where should I go?
All these thoughts will be forgotten as you look at the beautiful night view outside the window of a high-rise apartment.
I'll just forget about it and live on.
--- p.184 From “5 PM, Fireworks on the Han River”
"How could that be? Did you know? Did you know it was there?"
I shook my head quickly.
(…) It seemed like my wife didn’t know either.
I didn't even know what he was talking about, and this time he was pointing at the book he was holding and kept making strange noises.
"But how is this written here? How is this story about a scarf we don't even know about written here?"
--- p.213 From "A Quiet Future"
All the politicians disappeared overnight.
(…) From politicians who use saunas, to politicians who write malicious comments on social media, to politicians who do volunteer work, to politicians who stage sit-ins in tents.
All the politicians disappeared without a trace.
It was a time for cheering, but things didn't go as planned.
A black-haired foreigner opened my door and came in (to avoid confusion, I'll clarify that the black-haired foreigner is my biological older brother) and shouted.
Dad is gone!
--- pp.225~226 From "The Infinite Island"
Now I had to let my sister go.
We had to admit that at some point our space-time was completely divided.
If you look into my sister's world, you will see strings of snapshots of the day hanging from end to end.
That was the world my sister had.
That was my sister's way of looking at the world.
The day will never come when we will occupy the same time again.
But my sister will continue to live through that time.
"Why are you asking me that? I wish I could just keep going," the thought rose to my throat, but I forced myself to swallow it.
The soccer club's older brother spat on the field and said, "Those who were born to good parents should do well," and then strode off first.
--- p.21 From "Do you know Spring Day Dad?"
But you know what?
I feel like that inexplicable feeling is definitely a place.
I think that feeling and that feeling are the same.
A place you can go to, stay in, see, and thus describe.
--- p.89 From "Snow"
It was past midnight, past 2 o'clock, and in my mother's room, there was my mother, the room, and me. My mother's snoring was small, the room was small, my crying was small, everything was small, it was that kind of night.
It was a night when I felt a sense of emptiness, thinking that the arson by the man downstairs had solved a long-standing problem I had been struggling with.
--- p.99 From "Nothing special?"
Yang Seung-mi may not have known that she had been pushed out of her old neighborhood and out of Seoul, and that she had eventually had to move far away.
I didn't even know that I had posted a fake sale on Joonggonara because I had no choice but to live there, because I really had no other choice.
An apartment complex in the name of Yeonseok on the Han River.
If that place is ever rebuilt, where will some of the people who lived there go?
Where should I go?
All these thoughts will be forgotten as you look at the beautiful night view outside the window of a high-rise apartment.
I'll just forget about it and live on.
--- p.184 From “5 PM, Fireworks on the Han River”
"How could that be? Did you know? Did you know it was there?"
I shook my head quickly.
(…) It seemed like my wife didn’t know either.
I didn't even know what he was talking about, and this time he was pointing at the book he was holding and kept making strange noises.
"But how is this written here? How is this story about a scarf we don't even know about written here?"
--- p.213 From "A Quiet Future"
All the politicians disappeared overnight.
(…) From politicians who use saunas, to politicians who write malicious comments on social media, to politicians who do volunteer work, to politicians who stage sit-ins in tents.
All the politicians disappeared without a trace.
It was a time for cheering, but things didn't go as planned.
A black-haired foreigner opened my door and came in (to avoid confusion, I'll clarify that the black-haired foreigner is my biological older brother) and shouted.
Dad is gone!
--- pp.225~226 From "The Infinite Island"
Now I had to let my sister go.
We had to admit that at some point our space-time was completely divided.
If you look into my sister's world, you will see strings of snapshots of the day hanging from end to end.
That was the world my sister had.
That was my sister's way of looking at the world.
The day will never come when we will occupy the same time again.
But my sister will continue to live through that time.
--- p.309 From "Cabin Equation"
Publisher's Review
Jo Nam-joo, Jeong Yong-jun, Lee Joo-ran, Jo Soo-kyung, Lim Hyeon, Jeong Ji-don, Kim Cho-yeop
Seven Stories About What We Call Cities
What does your city look like now? Seven writers, active across genres, have published a collection of themed short stories, "City Fiction," offering a fresh perspective on their daily lives and their cities.
It includes interviews with authors about the cities they live in, along with seven short stories.
The writers describe cracks, big and small, against the backdrop of Jongmyo Shrine, Kyobo Bookstore in Gwanghwamun, and the Ulsan Skywalk.
The feelings, moods, and atmosphere that only those who have been to that place know are gradually distorted and overturned by the imagination of seven people, filling the city we know with new colors.
The unfamiliar landscape of the familiar city they unfolded reaches us even more deeply now, when even our hearts have shrunk from the repetitive, stifling daily routine.
What does your city look like now?
An unfamiliar cross-section of a familiar city, a world of city fiction unfolding within it.
Author Jo Nam-joo, who created an explosive response by meticulously depicting the tragedy of everyday life in "Kim Ji-young, Born 1982," reveals the transparent desires of apartment residents living near subway stations, entangled in housing prices, in "Do You Know Spring Day Dad?"
Author Jeong Yong-jun captured the warmth blooming from the collapsed Jongmyo Shrine in Seoul, devastated by an earthquake, in his book “Snow.”
This novel stands out for the simple sentences of author Jeong Yong-jun, which remind us of beautiful moments that have passed.
Author Lee Ju-ran, who has delicately captured the small moments of everyday life, calmly follows the time of people who gradually become stronger after suffering in a small town near Oseong Station in "Nothing Happens?"
In her previous work, “I Will Think of You Every Time I See the Morning,” author Jo Soo-kyung, who pondered a better life and death, contrasts the desire of the younger generation for real estate with the scenery of an alley in Daerim-dong in her short story, “5 PM, Fireworks on the Han River.”
In “Quiet Future,” author Lim Hyeon arouses curiosity by depicting the bizarre relationship between two people who met in the dark Kyobo Bookstore in Gwanghwamun.
Known as the "strange storyteller" for his witty sentences, he heightens the narrative tension in this work with his masterful control of the intensity of the story.
Author Ji-don Jeong, who displayed the charm of exquisite novelistic wit in "People Who Hate Jokes," unfolds an intense fantasy of the disappearance of "beings" from all over the world, set against the backdrop of Bamseom Island, in "Infinite Island."
Finally, in 『Cabin Equation』, author Kim Cho-yeop unfolds the love and understanding between sisters living in different times within the cabin of the Ulsan Skywalk.
The power of author Kim Cho-yeop, who immediately captured the hearts of readers with his science fiction works depicting heartwarming solidarity, can be seen in this work as well.
Jo Nam-joo, "Do You Know Spring Day Dad?"
“Isn’t this your precious asset that you have worked so hard to cultivate?”
A subtle rift among residents over the value of apartments near subway stations
One day, posts by a person with the nickname 'Spring Day Dad' appear one after another in the Seoyoung-dong community.
'Spring Day Dad' lists the advantages of Seoyoung-dong and argues that real estate prices should be re-evaluated.
The residents begin to subtly guess who 'Spring Day Dad' is by substituting the clues left in the post for each other.
"Do You Know Spring Day Dad?" reveals the relationship between residents and apartment prices.
The characters who discriminate against each other based on not only housing prices but also children's grades, occupations, and educational backgrounds, and the inferiority complex they feel, seem to realistically depict today's Korean society.
Author Nam-joo Cho uses her sharp gaze to unravel honest concerns and transparent desires that could never be expressed aloud.
Jeong Yong-jun's "Snow"
“The sacred and pious resting place of kings was shaken.
It collapsed.
And then it burned down.”
A year after Jongmyo Shrine burned down in the Seoul earthquake, warmth emerges from the ruins.
Lee Do, who works as a Jongmyo guide, appeals to the public to restore Jongmyo, which was destroyed by the Seoul earthquake. However, in Seoul, where everything is under construction, the restoration of cultural assets is a matter of survival.
Seo Yu-seong, the night watchman at Jongmyo Shrine, speaks to the grieving Ido.
“I want to believe.
Everyone is sad.
“They are trying hard.” In the conversation between Ido and Seo Yu-seong, who talk about the usefulness of history, we can feel their affectionate hearts that cherish not only the place but also the stories contained within it.
Snow, a stray cat who appears in the middle of a soot-filled blackout, is a being that receives care from them, but also brings warmth to the ruined place, making them look back on the painful times that have passed.
Lee Ju-ran: "Is everything okay?"
“It was a night where everything was small.”
The story of a person who gradually becomes stronger through small affections.
Suyeon, whose daily life is slowly falling apart, submits her resignation when a fire breaks out in the apartment below her and moves down to a small town near Oseong Station where her mother lives alone.
There, Suyeon, her mother, and K sometimes recall the pain that has not yet healed, but they gradually recover themselves as they settle into their new daily life.
Author Lee Ju-ran shows with a calm gaze how life becomes stronger after suffering.
The small things of everyday life: talking to neighbors, taking walks with old friends, and meeting new people.
The small, warm town is nothing special, so it is calm, lonely, cheerful, and yet heartbreaking.
Cho Soo-kyung's "5 PM, Fireworks on the Han River"
"What good is saving money? Meanwhile, housing prices are rising at a frightening rate?"
The dream of the young generation to live in a 30-pyeong apartment in the heart of Seoul.
Following the lead of a real estate YouTuber, Yijin started investing in apartments through gap investments, quit his job at an IT company, and now works at a job placement agency in Daerim-dong.
Yi-jin, who was following the trail of Yang Seung-mi, who became entangled in a gift certificate fraud, believes that his life will be different when faced with the traces of her miserable life.
Author Cho Soo-kyung, with her characteristically restrained descriptions and powerful images, sensitively captures the present state of a young man who has come to view even his job and love as mere means to owning a 30-pyeong apartment in the heart of Seoul.
In the novel, readers will encounter people in Seoul who are constantly being pushed out and pushed out, replacing the wealth and lives of others.
Lim Hyeon, "A Quiet Future"
“Honey, I think someone is watching us.”
The protagonist of my novel appeared at Kyobo Bookstore in Gwanghwamun.
After moving into a newly built rental apartment, I, a novelist, began to suffer from irregular insomnia and sleeplessness, and very familiar objects began to feel unfamiliar.
'I' write a novel based on this sudden sense of foreboding, and one day, a character from the novel appears before my eyes.
Author Lim Hyeon stimulates curiosity by developing a unique story where you cannot predict what will happen next.
The same objects appear in two spaces as if in parallel universes, and a series of events that are difficult to believe are coincidences keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the reading.
Readers will have the pleasure of guessing what will happen next in "The Silent Future," a book filled with exaggeration, humor, wonder, and eeriness.
Jeong Ji-don's "Infinite Island"
“Overnight, all the politicians disappeared.”
A world of boundless fiction, laced with Jeong Ji-don's wit.
Diana, a sixteen-year-old whose father is a politician, steals her father's small boat and travels to and from Bamseom Island, where she encounters 'Existence'.
After making contact with the being, Diana and her friend 'Tuna' begin to perceive the world in a different way.
And then, after a while, politicians from all over the world disappear.
“Dad, I told you not to get involved in politics.” “Infinite Island” is full of sharp satire and unbridled imagination.
On the island of Night, where mint chocolate ice cream is endlessly replicated, Diana confronts questions about silence, existence, tuna, and being the last human on Earth.
The author's calm skill in describing the chaos and overwhelming vacuum that has descended upon Earth draws us into an infinite world of fiction.
Kim Cho-yeop's "Cabin Equation"
“You guessed it, right? My calculations are accurate.”
Sisters living in different times, a warm bubble of time connecting them
Physicist Hyunhwa suffers from 'time delay syndrome', which causes her to live in time at a slower pace than other people, after a car accident.
In a letter to her younger sister, Hyun-hwa, who has not seen her in a long time after escaping from painful treatment, she asks her to investigate the Ferris wheel, and the two of them go up to the wheel together.
Hyunji feels a sense of alienation from her sister and her own time, which can never be the same again until she gets on the Ferris wheel.
But the moment you discover the 'pocket universe', you finally understand the two parallel times.
The gap between sisters living in the same space and at different times is filled with love and understanding, warming our hearts.
Seven Stories About What We Call Cities
What does your city look like now? Seven writers, active across genres, have published a collection of themed short stories, "City Fiction," offering a fresh perspective on their daily lives and their cities.
It includes interviews with authors about the cities they live in, along with seven short stories.
The writers describe cracks, big and small, against the backdrop of Jongmyo Shrine, Kyobo Bookstore in Gwanghwamun, and the Ulsan Skywalk.
The feelings, moods, and atmosphere that only those who have been to that place know are gradually distorted and overturned by the imagination of seven people, filling the city we know with new colors.
The unfamiliar landscape of the familiar city they unfolded reaches us even more deeply now, when even our hearts have shrunk from the repetitive, stifling daily routine.
What does your city look like now?
An unfamiliar cross-section of a familiar city, a world of city fiction unfolding within it.
Author Jo Nam-joo, who created an explosive response by meticulously depicting the tragedy of everyday life in "Kim Ji-young, Born 1982," reveals the transparent desires of apartment residents living near subway stations, entangled in housing prices, in "Do You Know Spring Day Dad?"
Author Jeong Yong-jun captured the warmth blooming from the collapsed Jongmyo Shrine in Seoul, devastated by an earthquake, in his book “Snow.”
This novel stands out for the simple sentences of author Jeong Yong-jun, which remind us of beautiful moments that have passed.
Author Lee Ju-ran, who has delicately captured the small moments of everyday life, calmly follows the time of people who gradually become stronger after suffering in a small town near Oseong Station in "Nothing Happens?"
In her previous work, “I Will Think of You Every Time I See the Morning,” author Jo Soo-kyung, who pondered a better life and death, contrasts the desire of the younger generation for real estate with the scenery of an alley in Daerim-dong in her short story, “5 PM, Fireworks on the Han River.”
In “Quiet Future,” author Lim Hyeon arouses curiosity by depicting the bizarre relationship between two people who met in the dark Kyobo Bookstore in Gwanghwamun.
Known as the "strange storyteller" for his witty sentences, he heightens the narrative tension in this work with his masterful control of the intensity of the story.
Author Ji-don Jeong, who displayed the charm of exquisite novelistic wit in "People Who Hate Jokes," unfolds an intense fantasy of the disappearance of "beings" from all over the world, set against the backdrop of Bamseom Island, in "Infinite Island."
Finally, in 『Cabin Equation』, author Kim Cho-yeop unfolds the love and understanding between sisters living in different times within the cabin of the Ulsan Skywalk.
The power of author Kim Cho-yeop, who immediately captured the hearts of readers with his science fiction works depicting heartwarming solidarity, can be seen in this work as well.
Jo Nam-joo, "Do You Know Spring Day Dad?"
“Isn’t this your precious asset that you have worked so hard to cultivate?”
A subtle rift among residents over the value of apartments near subway stations
One day, posts by a person with the nickname 'Spring Day Dad' appear one after another in the Seoyoung-dong community.
'Spring Day Dad' lists the advantages of Seoyoung-dong and argues that real estate prices should be re-evaluated.
The residents begin to subtly guess who 'Spring Day Dad' is by substituting the clues left in the post for each other.
"Do You Know Spring Day Dad?" reveals the relationship between residents and apartment prices.
The characters who discriminate against each other based on not only housing prices but also children's grades, occupations, and educational backgrounds, and the inferiority complex they feel, seem to realistically depict today's Korean society.
Author Nam-joo Cho uses her sharp gaze to unravel honest concerns and transparent desires that could never be expressed aloud.
Jeong Yong-jun's "Snow"
“The sacred and pious resting place of kings was shaken.
It collapsed.
And then it burned down.”
A year after Jongmyo Shrine burned down in the Seoul earthquake, warmth emerges from the ruins.
Lee Do, who works as a Jongmyo guide, appeals to the public to restore Jongmyo, which was destroyed by the Seoul earthquake. However, in Seoul, where everything is under construction, the restoration of cultural assets is a matter of survival.
Seo Yu-seong, the night watchman at Jongmyo Shrine, speaks to the grieving Ido.
“I want to believe.
Everyone is sad.
“They are trying hard.” In the conversation between Ido and Seo Yu-seong, who talk about the usefulness of history, we can feel their affectionate hearts that cherish not only the place but also the stories contained within it.
Snow, a stray cat who appears in the middle of a soot-filled blackout, is a being that receives care from them, but also brings warmth to the ruined place, making them look back on the painful times that have passed.
Lee Ju-ran: "Is everything okay?"
“It was a night where everything was small.”
The story of a person who gradually becomes stronger through small affections.
Suyeon, whose daily life is slowly falling apart, submits her resignation when a fire breaks out in the apartment below her and moves down to a small town near Oseong Station where her mother lives alone.
There, Suyeon, her mother, and K sometimes recall the pain that has not yet healed, but they gradually recover themselves as they settle into their new daily life.
Author Lee Ju-ran shows with a calm gaze how life becomes stronger after suffering.
The small things of everyday life: talking to neighbors, taking walks with old friends, and meeting new people.
The small, warm town is nothing special, so it is calm, lonely, cheerful, and yet heartbreaking.
Cho Soo-kyung's "5 PM, Fireworks on the Han River"
"What good is saving money? Meanwhile, housing prices are rising at a frightening rate?"
The dream of the young generation to live in a 30-pyeong apartment in the heart of Seoul.
Following the lead of a real estate YouTuber, Yijin started investing in apartments through gap investments, quit his job at an IT company, and now works at a job placement agency in Daerim-dong.
Yi-jin, who was following the trail of Yang Seung-mi, who became entangled in a gift certificate fraud, believes that his life will be different when faced with the traces of her miserable life.
Author Cho Soo-kyung, with her characteristically restrained descriptions and powerful images, sensitively captures the present state of a young man who has come to view even his job and love as mere means to owning a 30-pyeong apartment in the heart of Seoul.
In the novel, readers will encounter people in Seoul who are constantly being pushed out and pushed out, replacing the wealth and lives of others.
Lim Hyeon, "A Quiet Future"
“Honey, I think someone is watching us.”
The protagonist of my novel appeared at Kyobo Bookstore in Gwanghwamun.
After moving into a newly built rental apartment, I, a novelist, began to suffer from irregular insomnia and sleeplessness, and very familiar objects began to feel unfamiliar.
'I' write a novel based on this sudden sense of foreboding, and one day, a character from the novel appears before my eyes.
Author Lim Hyeon stimulates curiosity by developing a unique story where you cannot predict what will happen next.
The same objects appear in two spaces as if in parallel universes, and a series of events that are difficult to believe are coincidences keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the reading.
Readers will have the pleasure of guessing what will happen next in "The Silent Future," a book filled with exaggeration, humor, wonder, and eeriness.
Jeong Ji-don's "Infinite Island"
“Overnight, all the politicians disappeared.”
A world of boundless fiction, laced with Jeong Ji-don's wit.
Diana, a sixteen-year-old whose father is a politician, steals her father's small boat and travels to and from Bamseom Island, where she encounters 'Existence'.
After making contact with the being, Diana and her friend 'Tuna' begin to perceive the world in a different way.
And then, after a while, politicians from all over the world disappear.
“Dad, I told you not to get involved in politics.” “Infinite Island” is full of sharp satire and unbridled imagination.
On the island of Night, where mint chocolate ice cream is endlessly replicated, Diana confronts questions about silence, existence, tuna, and being the last human on Earth.
The author's calm skill in describing the chaos and overwhelming vacuum that has descended upon Earth draws us into an infinite world of fiction.
Kim Cho-yeop's "Cabin Equation"
“You guessed it, right? My calculations are accurate.”
Sisters living in different times, a warm bubble of time connecting them
Physicist Hyunhwa suffers from 'time delay syndrome', which causes her to live in time at a slower pace than other people, after a car accident.
In a letter to her younger sister, Hyun-hwa, who has not seen her in a long time after escaping from painful treatment, she asks her to investigate the Ferris wheel, and the two of them go up to the wheel together.
Hyunji feels a sense of alienation from her sister and her own time, which can never be the same again until she gets on the Ferris wheel.
But the moment you discover the 'pocket universe', you finally understand the two parallel times.
The gap between sisters living in the same space and at different times is filled with love and understanding, warming our hearts.
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: June 30, 2020
- Page count, weight, size: 344 pages | 428g | 135*195*22mm
- ISBN13: 9791160403916
- ISBN10: 1160403910
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