Winner of the 22nd Manhae Literary Award
A Sharp Portrait of Modern Korean History Through the Lens of Greek Tragedy
A work that asks about the meaning of human existence in a place where the boundaries between beliefs and values ​​are broken down.

The second book commemorating Kim Young-ha's 30th anniversary, "Empire of Light - Kim Young-ha's 30th Anniversary Special Edition," has been published.
『Empire of Light』 is a work that set a new milestone in the history of Korean literature after the division of the country.

“Liquidate everything and return immediately.
This order is irrevocable.”

Kim Ki-young, who lives an ordinary life with his family in the heart of Seoul, receives a summons without any warning or explanation.
Who sent this message, and what is its authenticity? Should we follow its command or reject it?

As we follow Kim Ki-young as he travels around Seoul in search of answers, and as we follow the absurd day of his wife Marie and daughter Hyun-mi, the reader witnesses a family's life, an existential crisis, and a sharp portrait of modern Korean history emerge like a relief.

In that he must realize where he came from and decide where he should go in just one day, Ki-young of "Empire of Light" naturally evokes Lee Myeong-jun of "The Square" and Leopold Bloom of "Ulysses," and the capital of a divided nation, Seoul, where he wanders intersects with Geoje Island during the war and Dublin under the British Empire.


This work, which depicts a day in the life of a person who is faced with the desperate choice of either erasing his traces and disappearing within 24 hours or abandoning everything and returning, is a problematic work that persistently delves into the meaning of human existence with irony and subversive imagination.

『Empire of Light』 won the 22nd Manhae Literary Award and was praised as “a masterpiece that captures history and personal issues in a balanced way, brilliantly combining them with our daily lives and customs, and unfolding them with a powerful narrative rarely seen in recent times.”


In addition, in 2016, it was performed as a play by the National Theater Company under the artistic director of the National Theater Center of Orléans, France, and a world-renowned director, Arthur Nausiciel, and it went on a tour in France from 2017 to 2022, receiving a warm response.
The original work also received praise as a “masterpiece” from leading French newspapers such as Le Monde, the weekly magazine Liberation, and the cultural critique magazine Telerama.
It was also covered by major media outlets such as NPR and NYT in the US, attracting readers' attention.