If you want the best of the best, this five-star book from Korea's Kyobo Book Center won't disappoint. Here are 9 of my favorite books.
Top 9 Korean novels you must read in 2023
If you're looking for the best books to read, where should you start?
When you search for Korean books on Amazon, it is very difficult to find five-star books. We have selected and organized only books that many people would like.
If you had difficulty searching on Amazon, we now provide an organized list of 9 volumes. Sharing a list of your favorite Korean novels.
Of course, you will most likely disagree with some of my choices. Reading tastes are very diverse and subjective.
There are countless books in the world.
Regardless of your tastes, I'm sure you'll find the book you're looking for on my list.
In 2023, choose from the top 9 Korean novels before the year ends.
광
Top 9 Korean Novels
Only one person
Jinyoung Choi
Sixteen-year-old Mokhwa borrows a dream and witnesses moments as vivid as reality. Scenes of random deaths, such as suicide, murder, accidental death, and natural death. At the same time, one voice is heard. If you save, you live. The tree's mysterious summons continues and daily life is shaken. Among the many deaths, only one person must be saved, but this is a task that has been passed down from generation to generation. Her grandmother, Im Cheonja, called it a miracle, and her mother, Rosesu, said it was a devil. Now cotton has to be chosen. What are life and death? Does God have a will? Can people be salvation to each other? Can humans live without faith and love? In addition to the heavy topic that the author has been exploring for a long time, it not only stands out for its sharp insight into civilization and social conditions, but also adds to the fantasy element of 'life brokerage', doubling the fun of reading. <The Only One>, which will be a turning point in Choi Jin-young's novel world, is the author's previous novel and eighth full-length novel, which he conceived three years ago and published after writing for the past year.
The city and its uncertain walls
Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami's new full-length novel, "The City and Its Uncertain Walls," has a special story about its writing and publication. Since her debut in 1979, Haruki has published a variety of writings, including novels, in various literary journals, and most of them have been compiled into books and officially published. Among them, the only work that was not published as a book and thus remained a mystery even among fans for a long time was the novella "The City and Its Uncertain Wall" (1980), which was published in the literary magazine Literature.
Morning and evening
Jon Fosse
The honor of winning the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Jon Fosse. Norwegian writer Jon Fosse, called “the return of Ibsen” and “the Samuel Beckett of the 21st century,” is one of the most widely active playwrights in the world today and has been evaluated as leading the forefront of modern theater. In addition to plays, he has written a vast body of work across a variety of genres, including novels, poetry, essays, picture books, and translations. It has been translated into more than 40 languages around the world and has received global attention. His works depict life revealed in ordinary daily life and human relationships through a minimalistic composition that extremely limits unnecessary elements, a repetitive speech style that falls between realism and absurdism, and a unique poetic and musical style that excludes periods and emphasizes rhythm. It sharply and densely depicts the universal issues of life and death, as well as fundamental reflections on human existence.
Convenience store with a view of the sea
Sonoko Machida
Tenderness convenience store, located in a quiet port called Moji Port in Kitakyushu, is noisy even today. At the slightest gesture, word, or facial expression of the handsome store manager, women who claim to be his fans erupt in cheers. Every time that happens, next to the part-time worker who shakes her head, part-time employee Miss Lee smiles secretly with sparkling eyes. Soon, a man with a bushy beard comes in and walks around the convenience store as if he were at home, and an old man wearing red overalls yells for everyone to leave, saying it is noisy. A suspicious sight that cannot be seen in any other convenience store. What on earth is going on here?
The unbearable lightness of existence
Milan Kundera
The lightness and heaviness of existence, which is right? Nietzsche's eternal recurrence is heavy, but it is real and true. On the other hand, because our life is only once, it cannot be compared or repeated, making it as light as a feather. The lonely life of Sabina, a weak Tereza who cannot love without jealousy. To Tomas, Tereza is heaviness and Sabina is lightness. Characters born from such metaphors as first-person yet omniscient, non-linear, repetitive narrative, and the breakdown of the dichotomy of lightness and heaviness. Kundera expresses human desire, pain, and the limits of life through experimental techniques that defy the smoothness and probability of following the flow of time.
Marigold Heart Laundry
Yoon Jeong-eun
Sometimes we want to turn back time and undo things we regret. But is it really a wise choice to erase that matter? And when those memories are erased, will I be able to be where I am now? If you don't have that memory, will you be able to be happy in the future? 『Marigold Heart Laundry』 is a healing fantasy novel that depicts the events that take place in a slightly suspicious yet mysterious laundry shop that appears on a hill in the middle of the night. A mysterious woman with a pale white face, chopstick-thin body, and long, black, curly hair makes hot tea every day for someone who visits the laundromat. Those who drink her tea unknowingly reveal to her secret stories that they have never told anyone else. Can people who ask to erase all memories of painful days cleanly, like stains, become happy when they leave the dry cleaners?
Inconvenient convenience store
Kim Hoyeon
The story begins when a man named Dokgo, who was living homeless in Seoul Station, one day picked up the wallet of a woman in her 70s and ended up working part-time at night at the convenience store she ran. This big, bear-like man cannot remember his past due to alcoholic dementia, and his speech is slurred and his actions are slow, making people wonder if he can deal with customers properly. But surprisingly, not only is he quite good at his job, but he also strangely captivates the people around him. As he catches on, he becomes a dependable worker who guards the convenience store at night.
Father's Liberation Diary
Jeong Ji-ah
When I returned to my hometown, I was greeted by a world of beauty that I had never seen before in Seoul. The cherry blossom road along the Seomjingang River, the sunset at Banyabong Peak, and the sea of clouds at Nogodan are not the only things that are beautiful. A neighborhood grandmother who says she hates cherry blossoms because they make her feel good and cornelian cherry because it makes her feel sick, a restaurant owner who brings it to her even if she doesn't need it, saying that fermenting rice will give her strength, and even a market grandmother who sells tough, inedible vegetables by claiming that they become soft when boiled, and in the kitchen. I sat at the table furthest from the restaurant, and even though there was no one there, the restaurant lady yelled at me to sit down (it turned out that she had severe arthritis). This place is full of people with a human touch. How could it be that the grandmother was lying? She's just trying to make a living. Isn't she human to tell lies and yell when she's in a hurry? What's wrong with Saram? It was her father number eighteen. When I accepted those words and realized that the world was so beautiful. I should have listened to my father a long time ago.
The last train station in the world
Takeshi Murase
The day you held me under your umbrella, I thought I was going to die. I don't have any friends. My parents divorced, and my dad, who I live with, was busy and didn't take care of me properly. There's a big spot on my right cheek, even though it's covered with gauze right now. Because I am short, I have always been the target of bullying. But on that day when it rained a lot, you gave me an umbrella. I have never forgotten for a moment the taste of the donuts you gave me back then. I felt like it was telling me that I could continue living that day... . I still have that donut box and can't throw it away. You saved me.
Reviewed by 11/04/2023 06:53:00 PM
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11/04/2023 06:53:00 PM
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