 |
| The Korean cover of Bora Chung's 2021 short story collection, "To Meet Her" (direct translation). Its English-language translation, "Your Utopia," rendered by Anton Hur, is set to be published next year. Courtesy of Arzak Livres |
By Park Han-sol
The English-language translation of novelist Bora Chung's 2021 short story collection, "Your Utopia," is set to hit the shelves next year in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and India.
Translated by Anton Hur, the piece is an absorbing mix of absurdist and wryly humorous tales that draw on elements of horror, science fiction and even zombie apocalypse to take veiled jabs at perceived injustices in today's world. The duo was previously shortlisted for the International Booker Prize for Chung's genre-defying collection, "Cursed Bunny," last year.
Among the eight stories featured in "Your Utopia" is "One More Kiss, Dear," which centers on an AI-powered elevator's unrequited love for one of the residents in an apartment complex.
Some of the tales are inspired by real-life incidents. In "Maria, Gratia Plena," the writer presents her take on domestic abuse after coming across an article in 2017 involving a French policeman who shot and killed his wife and two children as they were leaving the family home for good.
"To Meet Her" pays tribute to the late transgender staff sergeant Byun Hee-soo, who was discharged from the military in 2020 after undergoing her gender-reassignment surgery, and calls for the enactment of the Anti-Discrimination Act.
 |
| The cover of "Counterweight" (2023), written by Djuna and translated by Anton Hur / Courtesy of Penguin Random House |
Pseudonymous author Djuna's sci-fi novel, "Counterweight," published earlier this month in the U.S., is an "efficient, fast-paced cyberpunk story" that has been rendered "in a crisp translation" by Hur, according to The New York Times review of the book.
The book is a cinematic thrill ride that lays bare the socio-political strife and intelligence war emerging after one "chaebol" company builds the world's first space elevator on a fictional island in Southeast Asia.
Kim Sung-il's "Blood of the Old Kings," the first part of the novelist's fantasy trilogy, will also be rendered in English by Hur and hit the shelves in the fall of next year.
The book, with its world inhabited by swordmasters, sorcerers, war machines and dragons, "owes much to my cultural memory of colonization," Kim said in a statement. "History has many people who rose against such forces, heedless of the insurmountable odds. Those are the heroes that I sought to recreate, except with an epic fantasy fighting chance."
![[INTERVIEW] Korea has great opportunity to lead green transition](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/7321cddf734c43269db9ae00b4d9ddd7.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] Namseoul University leads adoption of innovative IB education programs](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/5291e6a2f3df420e83c62c2c4f712591.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] Song Kang discuss shortened screen time in 'Sweet Home 2'](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/e276a5e482b0485f9221a23f7de99c0d.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] Meet the man behind giant rubber ducks that once took over Seoul](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/df32c60c8204448e98ccdb9841366bec.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
