It unfolds based on an old bookstore in Jeju.
Stories of youth's growth and independence movement

In Jeju, there is an old bookstore that was established right after liberation in 1945 and has continued to this day.
The story of 《Hundred Year Bookstore》 unfolds in an old bookstore in Jeju.


Author Kwak Young-mi, who wrote “Century Bookstore,” was born and raised in Jeju.
So, 《Baeknyeon Bookstore》 contains a warm perspective and love for Jeju's culture and history.
This book also contains the friendships and lives of our youth as they grow along with history.
《Century Bookstore》, selected for the '2025 Art Creation Activity Support' sponsored by Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and Jeju Culture and Arts Foundation, is the sixth book in the 'Breathing Book Factory Youth Literature' series, following 《Rahee's Wish Tree》, 《Hello, Baikaltil》, 《Run, Yomangjige!》, 《My Thumb》, and 《Line》.

Long ago, Choi, the master of Byungjin, said that today Korea is the world's
He assured that it would become a powerful nation that would be the envy of others.
Byungjin's granddaughter, Leah, called Mr. Choi a "time traveler" because she was sure that the scenery he saw in his dream a hundred years ago was not a scene from a dream, but something he had seen in person in the future.

---From the text

When the children were struggling with the boring reading, Mr. Choi brought up a dream he had twenty years ago, when he was twenty years old.
“In my dream, I visited Joseon a hundred years later.
In a place called Jongro
“I went there and saw that there were tall houses of more than ten stories high standing everywhere, power lines stretched straight like spider webs in all directions, and the large, wide roads were full of people and cars.”
---From the text

The master's eyes also shook in confusion.
Korea, which lost its country to Japan and couldn't even speak Korean properly, became a world power eighty years later.
It sounded like the neighborhood dog eating grass.
None of the Joseon people thought that eighty years later, Joseon would become the world's greatest country.

---From the text

Byungjin hid behind a pine tree and spied on the master and the beggar children.
The children were sometimes wearing old, stained, dark jackets and trousers that were so stained that the colors were unrecognizable.
Myeongjin was fourteen, two years older than Byeongjin, Sundol and Manbok were twelve, the same age as Byeongjin, and the youngest, Cheol, was eight.

---From the text

Two seasons have passed since the beggar children came to Bururi Village.
When I first walked around the neighborhood, the people there felt sorry for me and shared food with me.
There were times when a group of beggars would wander around the neighborhood, but unlike other groups of beggars, they were all children, so I felt sorry for them.
But as the children continued to stay for a season, the villagers stopped sharing food with them.
In winter and early spring, it was common for the villagers to starve.

---From the text

Mr. Choi followed in his grandfather's and father's footsteps and grew the bookstore to a large scale.
He collected and managed scattered personal books, procured valuable books from China and Japan, and sold them not only in Jeju but also in Jeolla Province.
As the number of bookstores has been decreasing and the number of small bookstores has been increasing in Jeju Island for several years, Mr. Choi opened a bookstore that served as an intermediary, gathering and supplying the books needed by bookstores.
Mr. Choi wanted to teach the master how to work in a bookstore.

---From the text