NSTRA-14 freed the world of pain. Powerful and safe, without side effects or risk of addiction, it is the perfect painkiller.But as the fact of pain disappears, there are those who mourn its loss, and a cult forms around the idea that suffering is a necessary part of the human condition. For members of the Order, NSTRA-14 is a source of evil; a rejection of God; inhuman.Twelve years ago, these fanatics attacked the pharmaceutical company that created NSTRA-14, killing three...

One hundred and six poems of self-reflection and exquisite beauty—an intoxicating blend of Seon Buddhism and French Symbolism from one of South Korea's most celebrated and influential poetsThat summer I stood in the centers of storms That summer my despair burst out into crimson but still I weathered the wind and rainMountains, rivers, trees, flowers, the dark, a cat, a train. In the elemental forms and figures of our world, Lee Seong-bok finds rep...

A millennial turned magical girl must combat climate change and credit card debt in this delightful, witty, and wildly imaginative ode to magical girl manga.Twenty-nine, depressed, and drowning in credit card debt after losing her job during the pandemic, a millennial woman decides to end her troubles by jumping off Seoul’s Mapo Bridge.But her suicide attempt is interrupted by a girl dressed all in white—her guardian angel. Ah Roa is a clairvoyant magical g...

By the internationally acclaimed author of Cursed Bunny, in another thrilling translation from the Korean by Anton Hur, Your Utopia is full of tales of loss and discovery, idealism and dystopia, death and immortality. "Nothing concentrates the mind like Chung's terrors, which will shrivel you to a bouillon cube of your most primal instincts" (Vulture), yet these stories are suffused with Chung's inimitable wry humor and surprisingly tender moments, too—often between unexpected subjects. Ch...

Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, Cursed Bunny is a genre-defying collection of short stories by Korean author Bora Chung. Blurring the lines between magical realism, horror, and science-fiction, Chung uses elements of the fantastic and surreal to address the very real horrors and cruelties of patriarchy and capitalism in modern society. Anton Hur's translation skilfully captures the way Chung's prose effortlessly glides from being terrifying to wryly humorous.

Kang Kyeong-ae (1906-1944), one of Korea's great modern authors, wrote her stories during the Japanese occupation of Korea. Kang's work is remarkable for its rejection of colonialism, patriarchy, and ethnic nationalism during a period when such views were truly radical and dangerous. With an expert commentary by Sang-kyung Lee and beautifully translated by Anton Hur, this collection of Kang's work displays her sensitivity, defiance, class-consciousness, and deep understanding of the oppres...

In this charmingly chaotic follow-up to A Magical Girl Retires, our favorite millennial-turned-magical girl begrudgingly returns to the workforce to fight crime and the forces of evil.Our protagonist from A Magical Girl Retires is done with the magical girl life . . . but the magical girl life isn't done with her. After her request to take early retirement is resoundingly rejected by the chairperson of the National Trade Union of Magical Girls, her trusted...

From Korean science fiction author Kim Cho-yeop, a stunning and poignant collection of literary speculative fiction stories that explore the complexities of identity, love, death, and the search for life’s meaning, perfect for fans of Exhalation and The Paper Menagerie.In If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light, Korean science fiction superstar Kim Cho-yeop leads us to places we never thought we’d reach, imagining worlds galaxies away and u...

Amid a literal fog of war on a disputed planet, a woman is thrust into battle, forced to fight in her captors' war. With an empire at her back, ready to kill her at the slightest hesitation, this slaveturned- reluctant hero must battle through an unknown enemy, scientific abominations, and truly alien terrain to uncover the truth about her identity and that of her enslaved companions.Chung's novel—told in sparse, evocative prose and expertly translated by Anton Hur—draws on the real histor...

Over the course of a three-day funeral, a woman discovers new sides to her deceased father in this hilarious and heart-tugging masterwork from one of Korea's most fearless writers.So, Father died. Slammed his head into a telephone pole. A very serious man had seriously come to the end of his very serious life by seriously slamming his head against a telephone pole.Following her father’s sudden death, university lecturer Ahry returns to her rural hometown of Gurye t...

Minsuh, an anthropology student researching shamanistic rituals and the mudangs who perform them, has dismissed the supernatural her whole life. To her, mudangs are performers skilled at pleasing researchers. But as she gets deeper into her research, she's afflicted with a mysterious shinbyeong— a holy sickness unique to Korea—causing her to start losing her mind. In her desperation, she turns to a "real" mudang, but will she find salvation for her affliction or will she be driven further ...

Named a Best Fantasy Book of the Year by NPR, Amazon, Paste, and Book Riot!**“A must-read series for epic fantasy lovers."—Library JournalFrom award-winning Korean author Sung-il Kim & translated by the world-renowned Anton Hur, Blood of the Old Kings begins an epic journey unlike any other.**There is no escaping the Empire.Even in death, you will serve.In an Empire run on necromancy, dead sorcerers are the ...