Myeongho and his wife Hyejeong are intellectuals who have chosen to leave behind their lives in the big city and live close to the earth in the countryside. Yet things do not work out as neatly as they had hoped; Myeongho lacks the motivation to begin farming, and Hyejeong becomes more frustrated with her husband as the days go by. When they finally walk barefoot on the rich, dark soil and put their hands to their tools, they feel a joy they have never felt before. Yet the two continue to struggle with the choices they have made for their lives. Yi Ik-sang’s portrait of this young couple breathes life into a depiction of a common contradiction of early Korean history: the disconnect between the intellectuals and the lives of the peasants they held up as a pure ideal.
Yi Ik-sang’s “The Banished” tells the sad tale of how the tenant farmer Deukchun and his wife come to experience ever-increasing displacement and degradation in their search for a better life. Although poor, Deukchun prides himself on his intelligence and his wife’s beauty. The couple’s desire to escape from their dire poverty leads them away from their small country hometown, to another farming village, then finally to a bustling town. The couple finds, however, that a series of hardships await them instead. Depicting in detail the experiences of dispossession, “The Banished” serves as an example of the literature coming out of the early stages of the proletarian literature movement in colonial Korea.
Two women's lives and identities are intertwined—through World War II and the Korean War—revealing the harsh realities of class division in the early part of the 20th century. “Lee Geum-yi has a gift for taking little-known embers of history and transforming them into moving, compelling, and uplifting stories.” —Heather Morris, #1 New York Times bestselling author Can't I Go Instead follows the lives of the daughter of a Korean nobleman and her maidservant in the early 20th century. When the daughter’s suitor is arrested as a Korean Independence activist, and she is implicated during the investigation, she is quickly forced into marriage to one of her father’s Japanese employees and shipped off to the United States. At the same time, her maidservant is sent in her mistress's place to be a comfort woman to the Japanese Imperial army. Years of hardship, survival, and even happiness follows. In the aftermath of WWII, the women make their way home, where they must reckon with the tangled lives they've led, in an attempt to reclaim their identities, and find their place in an independent Korea. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
“Lee Geum-yi has a gift for taking little-known embers of history and transforming them into moving, compelling, and uplifting stories. The Picture Bride is the ultimate story of the power of friendship—a must read!” —Heather Morris, #1 New York Times bestselling author Download a FREE sneak peek today! “Your husband is a landowner,” they told her. “Food and clothing is so plentiful, it grows on trees.” “You will be able to go to school.” Of the three lies the matchmaker told Willow before she left home as a picture bride in 1918, the third hurt the most. Never one to be deterred, Willow does all that she can to make the best of her unexpected circumstance. But it isn't long before her dreams for this new life are shattered, first by a husband who never wanted to marry her in the first place, and then by the escalation of the Korean independence movements, unified in goal, but divergent in action, which threaten to split the Hawaiian Korean community and divide Willow's family and friends. Braving the rough waters of these tumultuous years, Willow forges ahead, creating new dreams through her own blood, sweat, and tears; working tirelessly toward a better life for her family and loved ones. “A beautiful testimony to those women bold and determined enough to leave behind all that was familiar, seeking a better life.” —Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Yi Ik-sang’s “The Banished” tells the sad tale of how the tenant farmer Deukchun and his wife come to experience ever-increasing displacement and degradation in their search for a better life. Although poor, Deukchun prides himself on his intelligence and his wife’s beauty. The couple’s desire to escape from their dire poverty leads them away from their small country hometown, to another farming village, then finally to a bustling town. The couple finds, however, that a series of hardships await them instead. Depicting in detail the experiences of dispossession, “The Banished” serves as an example of the literature coming out of the early stages of the proletarian literature movement in colonial Korea.
Winner of the Nautilus Award for Historical Fiction “Lee Geum-yi has a gift for taking little-known embers of history and transforming them into moving, compelling, and uplifting stories. The Picture Bride is the ultimate story of the power of friendship—a must read!” —Heather Morris, #1 New York Times bestselling author “Your husband is a landowner,” they told her. “Food and clothing is so plentiful, it grows on trees.” “You will be able to go to school.” Of the three lies the matchmaker told Willow before she left home as a picture bride in 1918, the third hurt the most. Never one to be deterred, Willow does all that she can to make the best of her unexpected circumstance. But it isn't long before her dreams for this new life are shattered, first by a husband who never wanted to marry her in the first place, and then by the escalation of the Korean independence movements, unified in goal, but divergent in action, which threaten to split the Hawaiian Korean community and divide Willow's family and friends. Braving the rough waters of these tumultuous years, Willow forges ahead, creating new dreams through her own blood, sweat, and tears; working tirelessly toward a better life for her family and loved ones. “A beautiful testimony to those women bold and determined enough to leave behind all that was familiar, seeking a better life.” —Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
A major, never before translated novel by the author of Mujông / The Heartless—often called the first modern Korean novel—The Soil tells the story of an idealist dedicating his life to helping the inhabitants of the rural community in which he was raised. Striving to influence the poor farmers of the time to improve their lots, become self-reliant, and thus indirectly change the reality of colonial life on the Korean peninsula, The Soil was vitally important to the social movements of the time, echoing the effects and reception of such English-language novels as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.
Yi Mun-yol's Meeting with My Brother is narrated by a middle-aged South Korean professor, also named Yi, whose father abandoned his family and defected to the North at the outbreak of the Korean War. Many years later, despite having spent most of his life under a cloud of suspicion as the son of a traitor, Yi is prepared to reunite with his father. Yet before a rendezvous on the Chinese border can be arranged, his father dies. Yi then learns for the first time that he has a half-brother, whom he chooses to meet instead. As the two confront their shared legacy, their encounter takes a surprising turn. Meeting with My Brother represents the political and psychological complexity of Koreans on both sides of the border, offering a complex yet poignant perspective on the divisions between the two countries. Through a series of charged conversations, Yi explores the nuances of reunification, both political and personal. This semiautobiographical account draws on Yi's own experience of growing up with an absent father who defected to the North and the stigma of family disloyalty. First published in Korea in 1994, Meeting with My Brother is a moving and illuminating portrait of the relationships sundered by one of the world's starkest barriers.
Myeongho and his wife Hyejeong are intellectuals who have chosen to leave behind their lives in the big city and live close to the earth in the countryside. Yet things do not work out as neatly as they had hoped; Myeongho lacks the motivation to begin farming, and Hyejeong becomes more frustrated with her husband as the days go by. When they finally walk barefoot on the rich, dark soil and put their hands to their tools, they feel a joy they have never felt before. Yet the two continue to struggle with the choices they have made for their lives. Yi Ik-sang’s portrait of this young couple breathes life into a depiction of a common contradiction of early Korean history: the disconnect between the intellectuals and the lives of the peasants they held up as a pure ideal.
A fictionalized biography of Kim Pyongyon, a 19th Century South Korean singing poet who had to bear the sins of his fathers. The family was disgraced by a grandfather who surrendered in a war, they were stripped of their privileges and Kim had to make a living as a troubadour.
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