Yi Kwang-su

Sun-Ae Hwang

Horace Jeffery Hodges

A major, never before translated novel by the author of Mujông / The Heartless—often called the first modern Korean novel. 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.

The Soil

Jang Jung-il

Chŏng-il Chang

First published in 1990, this is a sensational and highly controversial novel by one of Korea’s most electrifying contemporary authors, which plows through contemporaneous Korean mores with aplomb. First published in 1990, this is a sensational and highly controversial novel by one of Korea’s most electrifying contemporary authors. A preposterous coming-of-age story, melding sex, death, and high school in a manner reminiscent of some perverse collision between Georges Bataille and Beverly Cleary, the narrator of this book plows through contemporaneous Korean mores with aplomb, bound for destruction, or maturity—whichever comes first.

Sun-Ae Hwang

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