preface
Kim Hye-jin, "Fish"
Kim Se-hee, "Still Days"
Kim Ae-ran, "Prayer"
Seo Yu-mi, "That's not even a person."
Koo Byung-mo, "Asking How Far"
Kim Jae-young, "Elephant"
Yoon Go-eun, "P"
Jang Kang-myeong, "Cutting Part-Timers"

The story of youth thrown into the N-Po world as 'eul'

One day, he approached his older sister, who was walking down the mountain with her school bag on her back.
He was sticking his head out the red Tico window.
“Where are you going?” My sister said that was the first time she saw the young man preparing for the civil service exam smiling.
My sister didn't ride that car.
Then, we soon moved to a reading room in town.
Rain or shine, even when she had menstrual cramps or body aches, my sister would take the first train to the library and return on the last train. (Kim Ae-ran, “Prayer,” p. 81)

Eight short stories about young people who have to give up not only love but also their dreams and relationships.
Internet broadcasters, fake blog promotion agency employees, civil service exam takers, divorced women struggling with work and childcare, credit card company call center employees, foreign migrant workers, production workers suffering from industrial accidents, and part-time workers.
The main characters in the novel are all extremely ordinary young workers of our time.
These young people constantly strive to find jobs, constantly worry about what they are doing, sometimes get frustrated by the high walls of reality, and sometimes even strongly assert their rights as '乙'.
Through these twists and turns, readers get a glimpse into the struggles and sorrows of young people who work hard and think about the just weight of the sweat they shed.

- That's what a company is.
What the organization decides is reasonable is very cruel to the individual on the receiving end.
I'm in the same situation as Hye-mi.
If you work like this and the company tells you to leave, you'll have to pack your bags.
― That's reasonable... ... .
Manager, when the Thai buyers came last month, we held a farewell party. I was organizing the receipts, and I noticed that the cost of the first meal alone was more than my monthly salary. (Jang Kang-myeong, "Cutting Part-timers," p. 258)

Eight contemporary writers who most realistically captured the arduous 25th hour of youth.

Kim Hye-jin, Kim Se-hee, Kim Ae-ran, Seo Yu-mi, Koo Byeong-mo, Kim Jae-young, Yoon Go-eun, Jang Kang-myeong (in table of contents).
Through "Sweat Novels," we meet eight novelists who represent the joys and sorrows of young people and constantly send problematic messages to society.
As the novel progresses, the reader will ponder various topics related to labor, such as the value of work ("Fish"), career choice and work ethics ("Quiet Days"), youth unemployment ("Prayer"), women's labor ("That's Not Even a Person"), emotional labor ("Asking How Far"), migrant labor ("Elephant"), industrial accidents ("P"), and layoffs ("Cutting Part-Timers").
However, this does not mean that the novels contain rigid or dogmatic content.
Just showing the lives of working young people is enough to convey a message about labor issues.


I sent my resume to four places at the same time, and the first one I got was the one at my current credit card company, which passed the several-stage test.
I was assigned to a department completely unrelated to the one I applied for, but after hearing a suspicious and insincere response that it was company policy and that I needed to gain experience from the ground up to understand the job, I didn't have time to raise any further questions. Before I knew it, I'd already completed several rounds of in-house training, including new employee training and field trips. (Koo Byeong-mo, "Asking How Far" p. 152)

These novels, with their solid plots, will deliver a message about 'labor' while keeping you entertained throughout.
I recommend that young people taking their first steps into society read this book before the Labor Standards Act.

"It started with a sense of disappointment toward critics and publishers who make a living from literature."

In a capitalist society, everyone born as an 'eul' works.
They receive money in return for their labor and use that money to make a living.
In modern society, work (labor) is the most important topic for humans, and it is a difficult problem that must be dealt with continuously and fiercely.
In the 1970s and 1980s, these issues were so prominent that anyone could talk about labor, and there were many literary attempts to raise awareness of the severity of the problem and seek solutions.
Such attempts were called 'labor literature anthologies', but they are now hard to find.
So, has the problem of labor in modern society been resolved? In fact, the problem of labor in modern society has become more complex and entrenched, making it a difficult problem to solve.
Therefore, literature must speak more and more about labor issues, and in fact, countless literary works dealing with such issues are being produced by young writers.


“This book started out of frustration with critics and publishers who make a living from literature.
Because there was no proper anthology of labor literature that could be read with the younger generation.
However, I was hesitant to dig through old libraries and dig up the labor literature from the 70s and 80s that had fallen into a deep sleep.
Because time has passed and the world has become harsher for youth.
“That’s why I decided to create a novel collection that would allow us to think about work and careers in a new way in the 21st century.” (Preface, p. 8)

"Sweat Novels" is a book planned to share stories about work and occupations through literature, that is, novels.
Literature is a text that can share many stories, so I wanted to read the stories of young people working in modern society and continue a discussion that had been interrupted for a long time.