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Synchronized Sea Anemone / Grandma / The Cheerful Life of Lee Si-bong, Short and Struggle-Free / The Cut scrap

by Sarah K. H. Yoogo link March 5, 2026

Synchronized Sea Anemone 

by Kim Hyesoon

Nanda, 2025, 196 pages

Grandma 

by Hwang Sok-yong

Changbi Publishers, 2025, 224 pages

Landmark feminist poet Kim Hyesoon has returned with her newest poetry collection. The first publication in the Nanda Poetry Series, Synchronized Sea Anemone is composed of sixty-five previously unpublished poems divided into eight sections. Rounding out the collection is a letter from the writer and an English translation of the titular poem by Mia You. Kim herself has said she wrote these poems as a way of shocking her system, the works serving as a bucket of cold water jolting her out of a previously “dark, dark, dark, shadow.” Fittingly, her words seem to dance across each page, with playful descriptions and straightforward professions of affection mingling with her characteristic explorations of gender and identity.

Hwang Sok-yong’s Grandma opens with a scene of death begetting life: a dusky thrush meets its end near an estuary, but the small seed in its stomach is returned to the soil and grows into a giant tree—Halmae, or Grandma. This guardian deity forms the axis around which the narrative unfolds. In his first novel since his 2020 International Booker shortlisted Mater 2-10 (tr. Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae), Hwang takes readers on a sweeping saga through six hundred years of Korean history, from a Joseon Dynasty monk experiencing a moment of enlightenment under the tree to Halmae witnessing Japanese soldiers using a beloved sapling for target practice. Grandma offers a moving look at the price of human greed and the hope that endures against all odds.

The Cheerful Life of Lee Si-bong, Short and Struggle-Free 

by Lee Ki-ho

Munhakdongne, 2025, 528 pages

The Cut 

by Gu Byeong-mo

Munhakdongne, 2025, 352 pages

In The Cheerful Life of Lee Si-bong, Short and Struggle-Free, the titular Lee Si-bong is a dog— a Bichon Frisé with a royal pedigree, to be exact. Lee Si-bong’s owner Lee Si-seup learns of his pet’s impressive lineage when a breeder named Michelle informs him that Lee Si-bong is one of only a few remaining “King Bichons.” Michelle offers a generous sum in exchange for the dog, assuring Lee Si-seup that she will provide only the most luxurious care and accommodations for his beloved companion. As he struggles to decide Lee Si-bong’s fate, Lee Si-seup makes a startling discovery that sheds light not only on the canine’s own past, but on the lives of his royal ancestors as well. Inspired by the author’s real-life dog, this immersive novel asks, “Do humans truly know what’s best for our animal companions?”

The Cut tells the story of a woman who can read a person’s mind by touching their open wound. Enigmatic businessman Moon O-eon takes a penniless young woman under his wing, giving her a new name and life in a sprawling mansion where she reads people’s minds for him. She begins to develop complicated feelings for O-eon until one day, he commits an act of betrayal that shatters the tenuous trust between them. In a desperate attempt to make her understand him, O-eon asks her to read his thoughts. He, however, is the one person she refuses to read. In her characteristically propulsive style, Gu Byeong-mo weaves a complex tale that is at once a mystery, dark romance, and exploration of the basest instincts we keep hidden deep within.

 

Writer 필자 소개

Sarah K. H. Yoo

Sarah K. H. Yoo

Sarah K. H. Yoo is a translator and writer based in Korea. Her work has appeared in Litbreak Magazine and the National Centre for Writing website. She is represented by Safae El-Ouahabi of RCW Literary Agency.

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