Unless you're an overly happy person,
Nine years old is an age to experience the world.

The novel 『Nine-Year-Old Life』, which has been consistently sought after by readers for 30 years, has been republished by Hyunbooks.
A heartwarming yet difficult story of the people of a mountain village in the 1960s who lived together despite their poverty, as seen through the eyes of the protagonist, Baek Yeo-min, who lived a difficult life as a nine-year-old.
We can feel gentle laughter and deep emotion from characters such as the truthful liar Shin Gi-jong, the 'alien' philosopher who loved 'Earth women', and the black swallow who became an adult too soon.

A Western writer once said:
“Nine years old is a good age to experience the world, unless you were overly happy.” Fortunately, my nine years were not overly happy, and so I too began to experience the world.

--- p.10

“Just because someone is poor doesn’t mean they are all pitiful.
Being poor is just being poor.
“The most pitiful person is the one who thinks he is pitiful.”
--- p.56

A stone is useful for holding down a jar lid, and dog poop is useful for fertilizing a tree.
There is nothing useless in the world.

--- p.98

“The reason death and separation are sad is because we can no longer do anything for that person.
Whether you treat them well or not, you can't do anything for someone who has already left...
We are sad because our loved ones are out of our reach… … .”

--- p.177