The Grim Reapers came to save my life
Life is so sweet that it makes your tongue tingle!
When it rains we dance the hula
Here I am, just like you
My past self makes me stronger today.

Author's Note

★12th Brunch Book Publishing Project Grand Prize★
★First winner in the novel category★
★Recommended by author Gosuri and literary critic Hwang Ye-in★

“If there is a heaven where you can go alive, is it here?”
A novel of monstrous power that has come to deliver comfort after breaking through the record number of submissions!

A human drama full of witty scenes and warm emotions of recovery, about a young man, Kang-ha-go, who is tired of living, and is kidnapped by muscular grandmothers who live in a seaside village and pushed around, dreaming of living again.


The novel "I Want to Become a Strong and Beautiful Grandmother" by author Kim Seul-gi, who won the grand prize in the 12th Brunch Book Publishing Project, which recorded the largest number of entries in history, after beating out competition rates of 1000:1, has been published by Clay House.
The 'Brunch Book Publishing Project' has established itself as a gateway for writers dreaming of publishing, breaking the previous record of submissions every year.
"I Want to Be a Strong and Beautiful Grandmother" is the first winner of the "Novel Category", a new category established in the 12th Brunch Book Publishing Project. It is a cheerful work that inherits the warm emotions and the tension that makes you keep turning the pages of novels published through Brunch Book, such as "Welcome, to the Hyeonam-dong Bookstore" (Hwang Bo-reum) and "Camellia Salon" (Go Su-ri).


The novel tells the story of a young woman, Kang-ha-go, who is weak in body and mind, finding the will to live and the courage to move forward as she comes to live with strong and muscular grandmothers who are hard to find anywhere else in the seaside village of Gujeolchori.
The novel's unconventional plot of tireless grandmothers and a young man weary of everything makes it consistently cheerful, and the efforts of real adults who care for the grown-ups, who are tired of everything, like children add warmth to the novel.
Everything we dream of is here: strong physique, good adults, refreshing raw fish soup, sweet snacks, a tea menu just for me, and neighbors who support us.
I hope you can spend a day doing nothing and resting here as you did.

I am the main character of my own life, 'Kang-go'
The three grim reapers come to save him!

Thirty-three-year-old delivery man, Kang Han-go, is isolated in an empty house in a redevelopment zone, enduring a life that feels like death.
His parents left him early, and his only grandmother passed away, leaving him with only his friends, Taesu and Jeong-ah, who were in similar situations.
However, when even the two friends he trusted betrayed him, he continued to live lonely and depressed days, unable to heal or ignore his deep wounds.
I thought that all that was left in his life, which was always being hit here and there, was a rotten rope, but someone came to his attic to 'do it'.


Those who barge into the house of 'Gang-ha-go', who is barely holding on to his fading sanity on the border between life and death, are three muscular grandmothers who look like grim reapers due to their large physiques! Before 'Hago' can even tell if what he saw is a hallucination or reality, he is lifted up by one of the grandmothers.
The moment I opened my eyes in an unfamiliar place after falling asleep as if I had fainted, I realized.
That this unexpected 'kidnapping' would lead to a major reversal in his life.


The place we arrived at, dragged by the hands of muscular grandmothers, was ‘Gujeolchori’, a beautiful village with waves crashing in the sunlight.
Gujeolchori is a seaside village with a unique culture cut off from the outside world. It is home to the village's leader and carpenter, Wang Yeong-chun; the affectionate Oh Gil-ja, who runs a raw fish restaurant; and the tailor Shin Won-ju, who makes explosive remarks whenever she opens her mouth. These grandmothers are strong-willed and physically strong.
The grandmothers tell 'Kang-go' about her biological mother, 'Kim Myeong-hee'.
His mother, Kim Myeong-hee, whose face he had never seen before, ran a teahouse in Gujeolchori for a long time and passed away a few months ago.
After a brief moment of being shocked by the unexpected news, Kang-go decides to take over his mother's store on his own.


Even fully grown adults need care.
A story of strong care that transcends generations

When an adult falls down without a place to lean on, who can pick him up?
Of course, becoming an adult comes with the responsibility to take care of yourself and get moving again, even in the most difficult and painful situations. But what if you can't? In that moment, who, and how, will bring this person back to life?
"I want to be a strong and beautiful grandmother" begins with this very question.


After his only remaining family member, his grandmother, passes away, the protagonist, Kang Ha-go, is fed up with the delivery job he has to continue, the rude people he meets as if it were nothing, and even the meals he has to prepare for himself every day.
For some, a fridge full of food might be a given, but for Kanggo, that's never happened in his life, so the more he clutches his hungry stomach, the more he feels the pressure of an empty fridge that has nothing to eat if he doesn't take care of it.


The grandmothers, including Yeongchun, Gilja, and Wonju, who suddenly appear in front of him, try to interfere with his life to the point of being annoying, try to feed him until his stomach bursts, and beat him until his back swells, making him live.
The presence of these strong adults, who surround 'Hago' with "strong energy, affectionate nagging, and curious courage" (Gosuri) and push him into the center of life whenever they have a chance, may have been unpleasant at first, but gradually pulls 'Hago' to a brighter, warmer place.
The author says:
“It takes a village to help a fully grown adult recover.”
The title of this piece, "I want to be a strong and beautiful grandmother," perhaps goes beyond simply wishing to grow old like that, but rather represents the desire to be cared for by strong and beautiful grandmothers, the desire to become a better adult by following their example, and the dream of a strong solidarity that will one day lead to the point where I want to use those memories as a stepping stone to care for other young people.


Is your family separated? We eat and dance together,
If you can take a bath, that's family.

Memories of the care we didn't receive as children often haunt us for a long time.
When he got used to life in Gujeolchori, he went to a public bathhouse with the grandmothers and muttered this with his mouth sticking out.
“I’ve never been to a bathhouse because I don’t have a mom.” (p. 354) For some, going to the bathhouse holding their mother’s hand, scrubbing themselves until tears well up in their eyes, and returning home after bathing sucking on a bottle of cool milk that their mother gives them, is an experience that for others, it remains a deprivation that they desperately want but cannot have.
Even though it seemed like he had fully recovered, the village chief, Grandmother Youngchun, responds to 'Hago', who bursts out with the resentment that remains deep inside her, after hitting her on the back.
Our grandmothers also say that they don't have mothers, and that there is nothing they can't do in the world even without a mother.


Perhaps because the grandmothers were genetically born with exceptionally strong bodies, the men of Gujeolchori who had never been able to show their strength left for the city at an early age, and the grandmothers lived without getting married or having children, avoiding the eyes of city people.
Unlike the standards of outsiders who believe that a family is only made up of those who have a home and children, the grandmothers of Gujeolchori have been each other's family for as long as their white hair.
In front of such grandmothers, 'Hago's' complaint is just a mild grumble.
The grandmothers show 'Hago' how easy it is to become a family, and the simple secrets of life are to take care of each other's food, go to the bathhouse together, and make warm cabbage pancakes when sad.
The word 'family' used in the novel does not mean a general concept that is strongly tied by blood ties and thus exclusive, but rather a community of solidarity that transcends blood ties and generations to fill the emptiness that each person has.
Readers of this work will also find themselves running, dancing, eating, drinking, and soaking in hot water with these individuals, and will find their tired bodies and minds recovering within them, having become a new family.