novel

Kim Hwa-jin's God of Love, page 7
Detective Lee Hee-joo's Story, page 49
Park Sol-moe's Beloved Dog, page 137
Jeong Gi-hyeon, Black River, p. 167

prose

Kim Hwa-jin's Summer Vacation Memories, p. 203
Lee Hee-joo's Tokyo Notes, page 217
Park Sol-moe Summer is a few steps away, page 233
Jeong Gi-hyeon's "Water Memory" (page 243)

A story for days when you just want to sink in, a piece of rainy season to keep on your bookshelf.

We have not only bright and refreshing summers, but also summers that are so deep and humid with green.


There are times when you want to spend time alone.
I want to lie quietly in my room and slowly continue with my endless thoughts.
At times like that, the movement between thoughts is not noisy.
It will be satisfying to touch each corner of your thoughts and realize, "Oh, so that's what it looked like, so that's what it felt like."
Wouldn't heavy rain be a good match for the scenery outside the window on a day like that?

A story for days when you just want to sink in, "When I opened the summer, there was a story curled up there" is a book like "a piece of rainy season" that you can keep on your bookshelf.
We have not only bright and refreshing summers, but also summers that are so deep and humid with green.
A collection of novels and essays set in summer, featuring the work [Water fog] by photographer Yocho, who creates his own green world, on the cover.


The Explorer of the Elusive Mind - Kim Hwa-jin
Bursting desire, love written in sticky blood—Lee Hee-joo
This kind of vanguard - Park Sol-moe - leads you into unfamiliar scenery as if taking a walk
Calm madness, subtle humor, and sentences you want to read aloud—Jeong Gi-hyeon

Book critic Geum Jeong-yeon once said that a reader is not a ‘being’ but a ‘state.’


“There is no separate ‘existence’ called a reader, but rather a ‘state’ of reading something at a specific moment.
(…) You can read it in a cafe during the day with some noise, or you can read it alone at night with the nightstand on when everyone is asleep.
And each of these situations has a different impact on our reading.
I can't help but go crazy.
“I can’t say that this is always the case, but sometimes this influence can be fatal.” (『Midnight Reading』, Swimming Honey, 2024)

As he says, the impact of a situation on reading can sometimes be more 'fatal' than the text itself.
So, on a day you want to sink in, how about reading these seemingly disparate authors side by side? This book includes the widely beloved works "The God of Love" by Kim Hwa-jin, "Detective Story" by Lee Hee-joo, and "The Beloved Dog" by Park Sol-moe, along with "Dongsil in the Black River" by Jeong Gi-hyeon, a recent writer.

First, let's imagine reading together Kim Hwa-jin, an explorer of the uncatchable mind, and Lee Hee-joo, who writes about love with the sticky blood of bursting desire.
How distant and yet similar are the feelings and desires at this time? What would it be like to read Park Sol-moe, who leads readers through unfamiliar landscapes as if on a walk, and Jeong Gi-hyeon, whose writings possess a calm madness, subtle humor, and sentences that make you want to read aloud, in succession?
When I followed the flow of sentences that betrayed expectations, what kind of scenery did the two authors each prepare?

Each reader will have a different experience, but there are certain things we can be sure of.
The world of the author, whom I believed I already knew well, will undoubtedly feel unfamiliar.
Was this novel really this sad? Was there a scene like this? I tilted my head in wonder.

“I may have another water memory.
Summer is coming.
“With water.”
If a story resonates with you, you might want to lie down next to it.

In the essay “Connecting Water Memories” at the end of this book, Jeong Gi-hyeon connects various memories related to water.
For example, it connects the moment when I slipped on moss and fell into a stream when I was nine, with the moment when I was floating in a swimming pool in a village near Iguazu Falls when I was twenty-four.
Erasing the fifteen years that have passed between them, he weaves together dizziness and peace into a single rhythm.
Thanks to this, we can vividly feel the strange and subtle curves engraved in the familiar scene of falling into water and resurfacing.

Then he says this:
“Water is always a little or a lot scary, but just hold on for a little while, and I can have another water memory.
Summer is coming.
“With water.” Just as we create a new story by connecting various memories from different times, perhaps you too can do the same thing by reading the stories in this book.
Just for my own summer.
And if a story strikes your fancy, you might want to lie down next to it.
I hope that with this 'piece of rainy season', you can fully enjoy a moment of summer, a moment of time alone.