Welcome to the Hyeonam-dong Bookstore
 |
Description
Book Introduction
- A word from MD
- A bookstore opens in a back alley in an ordinary neighborhood.
The bookstore, which seemed to have stopped along with its owner, Yeongju, is slowly finding its place, and people tired of everyday life are visiting this place.
A comforting novel, told through honest and warm stories of books, bookstores, and people - Novel PD Park Hyung-wook
“I feel accepted
“I never knew it would be this sad and good!”
Winner of the Japan Bookstore Award! A global bestseller in the UK, US, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, and more.
Hwang Bo-reum's full-length novel, "Welcome to the Hyeonam-dong Bookstore," won first place (translated novel category) at the 2024 Japan Bookstore Award.
The Japan Booksellers' Award is a Japanese literary award established in 2004, and the winner is selected through direct voting by bookstore employees on the "book they most want to sell."
The translated novel category also began awarding prizes in 2012, and this marks the third time a Korean novel has won first place in this category, following Son Won-pyeong's "Almond" (2020) and "The Thirty's Counterattack" (2022).
"Welcome to the Hyeonam-dong Bookstore" is a novel with a miraculous history, first published as an e-book by Millie's Library, then later published in paperback due to strong requests from readers, and later becoming a bestseller not only in Korea but also in the UK, the US, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, and around the world.
In her acceptance speech for the Bookstore Award, author Hwang Bo-reum said, “I started writing this novel when I was wavering and wondering if it was okay to live like this, and things weren’t going well,” and “I wanted to tell the story that life goes on no matter which path you take, through people who have stepped back from the spotlight of the world.”
“I support everyone who seems to have gone off course like I did,” he said.
Hyeonam-dong Bookstore is an ordinary neighborhood bookstore located in a back alley of a neighborhood that seems to be anywhere in Seoul.
People with big and small wounds and hopes, including the owner, find refuge here and learn to live together.
If you're spending your days feeling empty, feeling like you've lost something, check out this book, filled with consideration, kindness, friendships and loose solidarity among people who know how to keep their distance, and honest, deep conversations.
“I never knew it would be this sad and good!”
Winner of the Japan Bookstore Award! A global bestseller in the UK, US, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, and more.
Hwang Bo-reum's full-length novel, "Welcome to the Hyeonam-dong Bookstore," won first place (translated novel category) at the 2024 Japan Bookstore Award.
The Japan Booksellers' Award is a Japanese literary award established in 2004, and the winner is selected through direct voting by bookstore employees on the "book they most want to sell."
The translated novel category also began awarding prizes in 2012, and this marks the third time a Korean novel has won first place in this category, following Son Won-pyeong's "Almond" (2020) and "The Thirty's Counterattack" (2022).
"Welcome to the Hyeonam-dong Bookstore" is a novel with a miraculous history, first published as an e-book by Millie's Library, then later published in paperback due to strong requests from readers, and later becoming a bestseller not only in Korea but also in the UK, the US, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, and around the world.
In her acceptance speech for the Bookstore Award, author Hwang Bo-reum said, “I started writing this novel when I was wavering and wondering if it was okay to live like this, and things weren’t going well,” and “I wanted to tell the story that life goes on no matter which path you take, through people who have stepped back from the spotlight of the world.”
“I support everyone who seems to have gone off course like I did,” he said.
Hyeonam-dong Bookstore is an ordinary neighborhood bookstore located in a back alley of a neighborhood that seems to be anywhere in Seoul.
People with big and small wounds and hopes, including the owner, find refuge here and learn to live together.
If you're spending your days feeling empty, feeling like you've lost something, check out this book, filled with consideration, kindness, friendships and loose solidarity among people who know how to keep their distance, and honest, deep conversations.
- You can preview some of the book's contents.
Preview
index
What should a bookstore look like?
You don't have to cry anymore
What does your coffee taste like today?
Stories of those who left
Can you recommend a good book?
Time for silence, time for conversation
Book Talk hosted by the bookstore owner
Coffee and goat
There is a button, but no hole to put it in.
Regular customers
The Susemi event went smoothly
Very occasionally a good person
All books are equal
harmony or dissonance
How similar are you and your writing?
A clumsy sentence hides a good voice.
On a night spent happily on Sunday
What's wrong with your face?
Our attitude towards work
The bookstore is taking root
I wanted to refuse cleanly, but
feeling accepted
You need the ability to calm your anger
Start writing class
I support you
Moms' Book Club
Can you make a living by opening a bookstore?
Today is Monday with a barista
I'll edit it for you.
Honestly and sincerely
When you make coffee, think only about coffee
Who is the man who came to see Yeongju?
Letting go of the past
As if nothing happened
Let's just like each other
A life with many good people around you
Mind Check Test
A space that makes me a better person
See you in Berlin
What Makes Bookstores Survive?
Author's Note
You don't have to cry anymore
What does your coffee taste like today?
Stories of those who left
Can you recommend a good book?
Time for silence, time for conversation
Book Talk hosted by the bookstore owner
Coffee and goat
There is a button, but no hole to put it in.
Regular customers
The Susemi event went smoothly
Very occasionally a good person
All books are equal
harmony or dissonance
How similar are you and your writing?
A clumsy sentence hides a good voice.
On a night spent happily on Sunday
What's wrong with your face?
Our attitude towards work
The bookstore is taking root
I wanted to refuse cleanly, but
feeling accepted
You need the ability to calm your anger
Start writing class
I support you
Moms' Book Club
Can you make a living by opening a bookstore?
Today is Monday with a barista
I'll edit it for you.
Honestly and sincerely
When you make coffee, think only about coffee
Who is the man who came to see Yeongju?
Letting go of the past
As if nothing happened
Let's just like each other
A life with many good people around you
Mind Check Test
A space that makes me a better person
See you in Berlin
What Makes Bookstores Survive?
Author's Note
Detailed image
Into the book
The voices of those who had scolded him began to sound like hallucinations whenever he forgot about them.
I thought it was fading away, but then it suddenly came rushing back from beyond my memory.
Every time this happened, Yeongju would break down a little.
But, not wanting to fall apart any longer, Young-ju delved into novels featuring characters who had left.
She acted as if she was trying to collect all the stories in the world about people who had left.
Somewhere in the lord's body there is a place where those who left live together.
The place is overflowing with various information about them.
The reason they left, their feelings when leaving, the courage it took to leave, their lives after leaving, the emotional changes as time passed, their happiness and unhappiness, joy and sorrow.
The lord would go to that place whenever she wanted and lay herself down next to them.
I lay down and listened to their story.
They have been encouraging the lord throughout their lives.
--- p.30, from “Stories of Those Who Left”
Instead, Minjun wanted to rest.
Looking back, I haven't had a moment of peace since I started my first year of middle school.
Once you become a top student, you have to stay a top student, and top students always have to work hard.
I didn't hate trying.
But if the result of my efforts was like this, it would have been better not to have tried at all.
But I didn't want to regret the past.
But I felt like if I continued to live like this, I would regret it someday.
Minjun checked his bank account.
The amount printed was enough to last several months.
At that moment, I decided.
Let's play until the day our bank account balance reaches 0.
Let's live without doing anything.
Okay, okay, let's see.
And then what? Then what… … .
'Where's next?
There is no next time.'
--- p.77, from “There is a button, but no hole to put it in”
“You did that last time.
The protagonists of novels are all slightly off-kilter people, so they ultimately represent ordinary people.
We are all out of sync, so when we bump into each other, we are bound to get hurt.
That means you're just an ordinary person."
Jimmy continued speaking as if in a monologue.
“We’re all like that.
Don't live harming others.
And sometimes, good things happen.”
--- p.103, from “The Susemi Event Went Safely”
“I feel like I could live decently if I could just secure this time in the day.
We humans are made complex, but in some ways we are quite simple.
All I need is time like this.
A time to breathe.
Even if it's just 10 minutes a day, or even an hour.
“Ah, this is the feeling of being alive.”
--- p.195, from “What it means for a bookstore to settle in”
Then suddenly I had a strange feeling.
The feeling of being accepted.
It was the feeling I got the first day I visited the Hyunam-dong bookstore.
Why do I feel this way again?
The very fact that Jeongse felt accepted in this house, that she cherished this feeling, was both surprising and sad.
But she thought this sadness was a good sadness.
Because now, through this feeling, I know for sure what the problem was.
--- p.205, from “Feeling Accepted”
“That is the basic posture of practice.
Being fully present in this moment.
“Minjun is doing that right now.”
“Are you practicing?”
“People often say to live in the present.
But it's easier said than done. What exactly does it mean to live in the present? Living in the present means focusing wholeheartedly on whatever I'm doing right now.
When breathing, focus only on inhaling and exhaling, when walking, focus only on walking, and when running, focus only on running.
Focus on one thing at a time.
“Forget the past and the future.”
--- p.279, from “When making coffee, think only of coffee”
“I think I became a better person while working at the bookstore.
Rather than just weighing what I learned from books in my imagination, I tried to apply it in this space.
I am a very lacking and selfish person, but working here, I wanted to share and give a little more.
Yes, I am the kind of person who can only share and give if I firmly resolve to do so.
It would be nice if we were born with a generous and generous heart, but that's not the case.
Living here, I will continue to strive to become a better person in the future.
I want to make sure that the good stories I read in books don't just stay in the books.
I hope that the stories that happen around me can become good stories worth telling to others.”
I thought it was fading away, but then it suddenly came rushing back from beyond my memory.
Every time this happened, Yeongju would break down a little.
But, not wanting to fall apart any longer, Young-ju delved into novels featuring characters who had left.
She acted as if she was trying to collect all the stories in the world about people who had left.
Somewhere in the lord's body there is a place where those who left live together.
The place is overflowing with various information about them.
The reason they left, their feelings when leaving, the courage it took to leave, their lives after leaving, the emotional changes as time passed, their happiness and unhappiness, joy and sorrow.
The lord would go to that place whenever she wanted and lay herself down next to them.
I lay down and listened to their story.
They have been encouraging the lord throughout their lives.
--- p.30, from “Stories of Those Who Left”
Instead, Minjun wanted to rest.
Looking back, I haven't had a moment of peace since I started my first year of middle school.
Once you become a top student, you have to stay a top student, and top students always have to work hard.
I didn't hate trying.
But if the result of my efforts was like this, it would have been better not to have tried at all.
But I didn't want to regret the past.
But I felt like if I continued to live like this, I would regret it someday.
Minjun checked his bank account.
The amount printed was enough to last several months.
At that moment, I decided.
Let's play until the day our bank account balance reaches 0.
Let's live without doing anything.
Okay, okay, let's see.
And then what? Then what… … .
'Where's next?
There is no next time.'
--- p.77, from “There is a button, but no hole to put it in”
“You did that last time.
The protagonists of novels are all slightly off-kilter people, so they ultimately represent ordinary people.
We are all out of sync, so when we bump into each other, we are bound to get hurt.
That means you're just an ordinary person."
Jimmy continued speaking as if in a monologue.
“We’re all like that.
Don't live harming others.
And sometimes, good things happen.”
--- p.103, from “The Susemi Event Went Safely”
“I feel like I could live decently if I could just secure this time in the day.
We humans are made complex, but in some ways we are quite simple.
All I need is time like this.
A time to breathe.
Even if it's just 10 minutes a day, or even an hour.
“Ah, this is the feeling of being alive.”
--- p.195, from “What it means for a bookstore to settle in”
Then suddenly I had a strange feeling.
The feeling of being accepted.
It was the feeling I got the first day I visited the Hyunam-dong bookstore.
Why do I feel this way again?
The very fact that Jeongse felt accepted in this house, that she cherished this feeling, was both surprising and sad.
But she thought this sadness was a good sadness.
Because now, through this feeling, I know for sure what the problem was.
--- p.205, from “Feeling Accepted”
“That is the basic posture of practice.
Being fully present in this moment.
“Minjun is doing that right now.”
“Are you practicing?”
“People often say to live in the present.
But it's easier said than done. What exactly does it mean to live in the present? Living in the present means focusing wholeheartedly on whatever I'm doing right now.
When breathing, focus only on inhaling and exhaling, when walking, focus only on walking, and when running, focus only on running.
Focus on one thing at a time.
“Forget the past and the future.”
--- p.279, from “When making coffee, think only of coffee”
“I think I became a better person while working at the bookstore.
Rather than just weighing what I learned from books in my imagination, I tried to apply it in this space.
I am a very lacking and selfish person, but working here, I wanted to share and give a little more.
Yes, I am the kind of person who can only share and give if I firmly resolve to do so.
It would be nice if we were born with a generous and generous heart, but that's not the case.
Living here, I will continue to strive to become a better person in the future.
I want to make sure that the good stories I read in books don't just stay in the books.
I hope that the stories that happen around me can become good stories worth telling to others.”
--- pp.343~344, from “A Space That Makes Me a Better Person”
Publisher's Review
At the request of readers who have read it before
A novel reborn as a paper book
There is a novel that immediately reached the top 10 e-book bestsellers and received 150 reader reviews.
"I wish it came out in paperback! It's a book I'd want to own," "I felt comforted while reading it," "I wish it existed in real life, not just a novel," "A novel that's like a recovery from the exhaustion of everyday life," and many other accolades have garnered it, making it by far the most popular of the winners of the Brunch Book e-book publishing project.
Hwang Bo-reum's full-length novel, "Welcome to the Hyeonam-dong Bookstore," was finally published as a paper book after being released on Milli's Bookstore, an e-book subscription service platform, and due to constant requests from readers who wanted to read and own the book as a paper book.
In an age overflowing with provocative material and captivating plots brimming with twists and turns, why does a novel, flowing gently, so captivate us? It's because it powerfully touches on things so crucial to our lives, yet so often forgotten.
In a world that is so busy that it leaves no time to breathe, this novel itself provides a 'time to breathe'.
And it also provides deep insight into how to approach work, how to relate to people, and ultimately, how to live.
As the reader commented, “This is clearly a novel written by an author with a deep understanding of life,” “Welcome to Hyeonam-dong Bookstore” is a novel that unfolds a profound philosophy of life through the medium of a local bookstore.
Likewise, the moment you step into this bookstore, you will begin to live a completely different life than before.
I want to stay in this warm space forever
I want to spend my life with people like these.
An ordinary neighborhood bookstore newly opened in a back alley.
The neighbors discover it on the street and come in happily, but soon stop coming because the owner looks sick and depressed.
Young-ju, who opened a bookstore, awkwardly enters the store as if he were a customer and sits quietly reading a book.
I cried often without realizing it, and greeted the few guests as if nothing had happened, wiping away my tears.
I sat there for months feeling helpless, and then at some point the tears stopped flowing.
And after a while, you realize that you are quite healthy.
Only then did the Hyunam-dong bookstore begin to take on the appearance of a real bookstore.
He fills the bookshelves that were half full and even hires a barista to make coffee for him.
Books are piling up, book clubs are forming, and writing classes are starting, but it is the people who make the healthy Hyeonam-dong bookstore complete.
Minjun, a barista who gave up on finding a job after endless failed attempts and started working part-time with the mindset that whatever happens will be fine; Jimmy, the CEO of a roasting company who often gets angry because of her husband; Mincheol, a high school student who finds life boring, and Heeju, who worries about her son but cheers him on instead of nagging him; Jeongseo, who sits quietly in a corner of a bookstore knitting and meditating; and Seungwoo, a writer who has become obsessed with studying Korean sentences because his life has become empty. These people come together to make the bookstore in Hyeonam-dong a space that makes you want to stay forever once you visit.
We invite you to the friendship and loose solidarity between people who know how to keep their distance, and the honest and profound conversations they engage in.
A profound sentence from a writer who understands life
Creating a novel that is more real than reality
The novel explores various ideas about 'how to overcome wounds and move forward' through the eyes of ordinary people we can easily find around us.
In particular, because the issues this novel addresses are concrete and accurate, dealing with what we are experiencing right here and now, readers are easily drawn into the world this novel depicts, as if they were hearing their own story.
Moreover, readers find hope, not despair, in this book, as it does not end with simple empathy but also presents alternatives on how to live.
And that hope is not vague, but well-founded!
Perhaps that is why readers of “Welcome to the Hyeonam-dong Bookstore” commonly express the opinion that it would be nice if a bookstore like this actually existed.
Maybe you too.
A book that gives us, tired and exhausted from our busy daily lives, a gift of gentle comfort and comfortable laughter.
A book that gives me the courage to face my hidden wounds, and gives me the opportunity to let go of the past and live with confidence.
If you step into this realistic and relatable bookstore story and spend time with the characters in this novel, you too will realize that a truly successful life is one lived with good people.
A novel reborn as a paper book
There is a novel that immediately reached the top 10 e-book bestsellers and received 150 reader reviews.
"I wish it came out in paperback! It's a book I'd want to own," "I felt comforted while reading it," "I wish it existed in real life, not just a novel," "A novel that's like a recovery from the exhaustion of everyday life," and many other accolades have garnered it, making it by far the most popular of the winners of the Brunch Book e-book publishing project.
Hwang Bo-reum's full-length novel, "Welcome to the Hyeonam-dong Bookstore," was finally published as a paper book after being released on Milli's Bookstore, an e-book subscription service platform, and due to constant requests from readers who wanted to read and own the book as a paper book.
In an age overflowing with provocative material and captivating plots brimming with twists and turns, why does a novel, flowing gently, so captivate us? It's because it powerfully touches on things so crucial to our lives, yet so often forgotten.
In a world that is so busy that it leaves no time to breathe, this novel itself provides a 'time to breathe'.
And it also provides deep insight into how to approach work, how to relate to people, and ultimately, how to live.
As the reader commented, “This is clearly a novel written by an author with a deep understanding of life,” “Welcome to Hyeonam-dong Bookstore” is a novel that unfolds a profound philosophy of life through the medium of a local bookstore.
Likewise, the moment you step into this bookstore, you will begin to live a completely different life than before.
I want to stay in this warm space forever
I want to spend my life with people like these.
An ordinary neighborhood bookstore newly opened in a back alley.
The neighbors discover it on the street and come in happily, but soon stop coming because the owner looks sick and depressed.
Young-ju, who opened a bookstore, awkwardly enters the store as if he were a customer and sits quietly reading a book.
I cried often without realizing it, and greeted the few guests as if nothing had happened, wiping away my tears.
I sat there for months feeling helpless, and then at some point the tears stopped flowing.
And after a while, you realize that you are quite healthy.
Only then did the Hyunam-dong bookstore begin to take on the appearance of a real bookstore.
He fills the bookshelves that were half full and even hires a barista to make coffee for him.
Books are piling up, book clubs are forming, and writing classes are starting, but it is the people who make the healthy Hyeonam-dong bookstore complete.
Minjun, a barista who gave up on finding a job after endless failed attempts and started working part-time with the mindset that whatever happens will be fine; Jimmy, the CEO of a roasting company who often gets angry because of her husband; Mincheol, a high school student who finds life boring, and Heeju, who worries about her son but cheers him on instead of nagging him; Jeongseo, who sits quietly in a corner of a bookstore knitting and meditating; and Seungwoo, a writer who has become obsessed with studying Korean sentences because his life has become empty. These people come together to make the bookstore in Hyeonam-dong a space that makes you want to stay forever once you visit.
We invite you to the friendship and loose solidarity between people who know how to keep their distance, and the honest and profound conversations they engage in.
A profound sentence from a writer who understands life
Creating a novel that is more real than reality
The novel explores various ideas about 'how to overcome wounds and move forward' through the eyes of ordinary people we can easily find around us.
In particular, because the issues this novel addresses are concrete and accurate, dealing with what we are experiencing right here and now, readers are easily drawn into the world this novel depicts, as if they were hearing their own story.
Moreover, readers find hope, not despair, in this book, as it does not end with simple empathy but also presents alternatives on how to live.
And that hope is not vague, but well-founded!
Perhaps that is why readers of “Welcome to the Hyeonam-dong Bookstore” commonly express the opinion that it would be nice if a bookstore like this actually existed.
Maybe you too.
A book that gives us, tired and exhausted from our busy daily lives, a gift of gentle comfort and comfortable laughter.
A book that gives me the courage to face my hidden wounds, and gives me the opportunity to let go of the past and live with confidence.
If you step into this realistic and relatable bookstore story and spend time with the characters in this novel, you too will realize that a truly successful life is one lived with good people.
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: January 17, 2022
- Page count, weight, size: 364 pages | 464g | 140*205*21mm
- ISBN13: 9791197377143
- ISBN10: 119737714X
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