If you’re going to delve into the genre of Korean fiction, the Expanded Edition of the compilation Land of Exile: Contemporary Korean Fiction (2007, ISBN 978-0-7656-1810-8), translated and edited by Marshall R. Pihl and Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton, is a pretty good place to start. There are sixteen short stories in this book of 336 text pages, and they are as varied as the country itself. Their content spans immediate post-war Korea to modern times, and each story contains a brief introduction describing the author and something of the setting of the story.

There’s something for everyone here. Some stories touch on the uneasy political milieu of the post-Korean War south, and its impact on friends, families, and acquaintances.  The selections are so well-chosen that it’s tough to pick clear favorites, but two in particular stood out to us here at WoWasis. Hwang Sogyong’s ‘A Dream of Good Fortune’ is a riveting story delving with the daily lives of Korea’s dirt-poor, who live adjacent to sewers and railroad tracks. Here, the value of work is judged by what one brings home by cart, rather than by one’s title. Everyone’s station in life is rough.

Kim Hun’s ‘From Powder to Powder’ climbs into the mind of a cosmetics executive whose wife is being destroyed by cancer. The story is intricate, told alternately in first person and second person, the latter voice applying to a lover that doesn’t exist. Kim’s story becomes increasingly more compelling, whether submerged in the fine details of a body being killed by itself, tracing along uncomfortable familial issues, or balancing the business and personal worlds in times of crisis.

It helps to know a little Korean history while reading the first couple of chapters, but then again, the stories are timeless, and are common t any country experiencing a recent civil war. The book is highly recommended to readers wishing to gain insight into Korean culture, and those wishing to gain some knowledge of the richness of the Korean school of fiction. Buy this book now at the WoWasis eStore.