Smoking cigarettes without mom knowing
Author's Note
Interview with author Im Sol-a

“I think my sister did the same thing.”
How powerful is pain, how powerful is sadness?
What kind of collapse will occur when that power spreads to others?

Author Im Sol-ah, who received praise as “a novel in a different class” (literary critic Shin Hyeong-cheol) and delivered a powerful shock with her first novel, “The Best Life,” which deals with the nightmarish friendship of runaway teenagers, has published her new novel, “Cigarettes I Smoke Behind Mom’s Back,” as part of the Wisdom House Wepick series.
Whenever I read a novel by author Im Sol-a, I always have the unfamiliar and surprising experience of starting with the story in the novel and eventually returning to my own story.


The novel begins with a letter.
The protagonist, 'Yuri', finds a letter addressed to 'Jongsun' at her mother's house.
The sender is 'Eunhyang', who is forcibly admitted to a mental hospital.
It contains a desperate plea for help as he cannot leave the hospital without a guardian.
The problem is that Aunt Jong-sun already passed away 20 years ago.
As Yuri reads the letter, she recalls the time when she was eight years old, when her aunt passed away.
The strange joy and fear of pulling coins out of the piggy bank every day, knowing something was wrong but not being able to stop.


Yuri's mother is battling cancer.
If she had wasted her life to the fullest, at least she wouldn't have felt wronged, but seeing her mother like that, her younger sister, Gyuri, decides to waste her life to the fullest.
“Who is helping whom?” Mom ignores Eunhyang’s letter, and Yuri also tries to pretend not to see it.
However, Gyuri sends money to the hospital and ends up going to see Eunhyang herself.
Eunhyang confesses that she has no intention of leaving the hospital or asking for anyone's help, and that she only wanted to see Jongsun once before she died.
The shadow of her aunt resurrected through letters, connections with people whose memories were vague, and the time spent by sisters grieving in their own ways.
In it, we are confronted with the essential questions of life.
Some people endure life and hold on, while others quietly prepare to leave.

A special experience that allows you to breathe deeply into 'a single story'

Beginning in November 2022, Wisdom House will be introducing the most diverse and newest stories of Korean literature, one per week, through its short story serial project, "Weekly Fiction."
Over the past year, 50 stories have been loved by readers, including Gu Byeong-mo's "Shred," Jo Ye-eun's "Waiting for the High Tide," Ahn Dam's "The Girl Grows Alone," and Choi Jin-young's "Aurora."
The Wepick series publishes serialized novels in this way, and rather than the conventional method of binding together several short stories, it takes the unusual approach of composing a book with only one short story, giving readers the special experience of breathing deeply into each story.
Wepick is not bound by any criteria or distinctions such as material or format, and focuses solely on the completeness of a single story.
Through novels by a variety of authors, including novelists, non-fiction writers, poets, and youth literature writers, we break down genres and boundaries, expanding the possibilities and enjoyment of stories.

Following the 50 episodes of Season 1, Season 2 is filled with even more new writers and stories.
Season 2 will feature writers Kang Hwa-gil, Lim Seon-woo, Dan Yo, Jeong Bo-ra, Kim Bo-young, Lee Mi-sang, Kim Hwa-jin, Jeong I-hyeon, and Lim Sol-ah.
Additionally, Season 2 will include author interviews, telling a variety of stories both inside and outside of the works, further enriching the annual festival of 50 stories.

Introducing the Wepick Series

Wepick is a short story series from Wisdom House.
It offers a special experience of breathing deeply into ‘one story’.
I dream that this small piece will become a new piece that expands your world, that each small piece will come together to become your story, and that it will become a piece of literature that will be deeply engraved in your heart.

A Piece of Literature, Wepick

Gu Byeong-mo's "Shred"
Lee Hee-joo's "Mayumi"
Yoon Ja-young's "Grandma's Tteokbokki Recipe"
Park So-yeon's "Bustling, but Secretive"
Kim Ki-chang's "The Visitor on Christmas Eve"
Lee Jong-san's "Blue Marble"
Kwak Jae-sik's "The End of Space Wars"
Kim Dong-sik's "100 Buttons"
Bae Ye-ram, "I Will Be Under the Water"
Lee So-ho's "My Crazy Neighbor"
Oh Han-gi's "My Happy Parenting Diary"
Jo Ye-eun's "Waiting for High Tide"
Dojinki 『Annie』
Park Sol-moe's "Girlfriends of the Far East"
Jeong Hye-yoon's "Workshop for People Who Want to Feel at Peace"
Hwangmogwa's "10 Seconds Forever"
Kim Hee-sun's "Samcheok, Immortal"
Choi Jeong-hwa's "Botros Report"
Jeong Hae-yeon's "Model"
Jeong I-dam's "Flower of Reincarnation"
Moon Ji-hyuk's "Christmas Carousel"
Kim Mok-in's "Marcel Accordion Club"
Jeon Geon-woo's "Ange"
Choi Yang-seon's "Shadow Butterfly"
Lee Ha-jin's "The Graveyard of Probability"
All of the 『Sweet and Earnest』
Lee Yuri, "Can You Sleep?"
Sim Neul: "Oh no, my mom kidnapped the spaceship."
Choi Hyun-sook's "Women of Changsin-dong"
Yeonyeom 『Limited 2nd Semester Book Club』
Seo Mi-ae's "My Girlfriend"
Kim Won-young's "Our Climbing"
Jeong Ji-don's "Deaths That Cannot Be Called Modern"
Lee Seo-su's "What My First Love Left for My Sister"
Lee Kyung-hee's "Knot Organizer"
Song Kyung-ah's "Rainbow Pet Columbarium"
Hyunhojeong's "Three Colors"
Kim Hyun's "Unique Form"
Kim Yi-hwan's "A Better Human"
Lee Min-jin's "Muching"
An Dam 『Girls Grow Up Alone』
Jo Hyun-ah's "Rice-Life Clown Play"
Kim Hyo-in's "Refresh"
Jeon Hye-jin's "Cutting the Gordian Knot"
Kim Cheong-gyul's "Dehumidifier Diet"
Choi Ui-taek's "Nontunneling"
Kim Yu-dam's "Space M"
Jeon Sam-hye's "The Road to Myself"
Choi Jin-young's "Aurora"
Lee Hyuk-jin's "Solid and Rust-Free"
Kang Hwa-gil's "Young-hee and James"
Lee Moon-young's "Lucas"
Hyonchan Yang's "For Queen Inhyeon's Return to the Palace"
Cha Hyun-ji's "Different Days"
Kim Seong-jung's "Mole Man"
Kim Seo-hae's "Rabiu and Ring"
Lim Seon-woo's "0000"
Dew Na 『Bari』
Han Yuri's "Immortal Injeolmi"
Han Jeong-hyeon, "Love and Union Chapter 0"
Wi Su-jeong's "The Turkey is Hidden"
Cheon Hee-ran's "Author's Note"
Information on 『Window』
Lee Ju-ran's "At That Time"
Kim Bo-young's "It's a Wild Thing"
Lee Ju-hye's "The Room with the Chinese Parrot"
Jeong Dae-geon's "Buonissimo, Naples"
Kim Hee-jae's "Mars and the Attempt at Creativity"
Just 『Verbena Beyond the Wall』
Moon Bo-young's "The Sad You Who Knows the Name of a Bird"
Park Seo-ryeon's "Body Body"
Geum Jeong-yeon, "Everyone's Sunday"
Park Yi-kang's "Job Interview"
Kim Na-hyun's "The Universe of Premonition"
Kim Hwa-jin's "I Want to Be a Frog"
Kwon Kim Hyun-young's "Neither the Recipient nor the Sender, CC"
Bae Myung's "Summer of Gyehwa"
Lee Du-on's "The Disease That Kills You If You Don't Spend Money"
Kim Ji-yeon's "New Year's Practice"
Jo Woo-ri's "Suffering in Four Books"
Yesoyeon's "Noisy Whispers"
Lee Jang-wook's "The World of Superhumans"
Seong Hae-na, "When We Are Born and Die Ten Times"
Jang Jin-young's "Kim Yong-ho"
Lee Yeon-sook's "Dad's Novel"
Now, let's dance like a fool
Kwon Hee-jin's "First, Believe"
Jeong I-hyeon's "The Living Person"
Ham Yun-i's "The Story of a Cattle Thief Growing Up"
Baek Se-hee's "The Testament of Barcelona"
Lee Hyun-seok's "The Age of Confession"
Im Sol-ah's "Cigarettes I Smoke Without My Mom Knowing"
Kim Yu-won's "Waikano"
Baek On-yu's "The Relationships"