Why are we passionate about this?

A couple who have been claimed by Korea—Bruce as a US Peace Corps volunteer there and Ju-Chan as a native Korean and an English teacher—and its culture, society, history, and especially literary heritage. We have been translating modern Korean fiction into English since 1980. Bruce was fated to become involved with Korean literature by virtue of being born on October 9, the day in 1446 when Great King Sejong promulgated (officially announced) the creation of the Korean alphabet, hangŭl, to the people of Korea.


We wrote

Book cover of Mina

What is our book about?

A novel about the love-hate relationship between two high school girls, penned by the author who best understands the rage…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

The books we picked & why

Book cover of One Left

Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton Why did I love this book?

Millions of victims of man-made historical disasters await rediscovery from the murky corners of history to which they have been consigned. One Left returns to historical memory the 200,000-plus Korean girls who were taken from their home villages during World War Two to serve as sex slaves for the Japanese military in “comfort stations.” The end of this disturbing novel is brilliant: the protagonist reclaims her identity, and by extension that of each of the “comfort women,” by recalling the name given her at birth—a name she has not used in the 70 years since she returned to her homeland after years of sexual servitude.

By Kim Soom, Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton (translator),

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked One Left as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

During the Pacific War, more than 200,000 Korean girls were forced into sexual servitude for Japanese soldiers. They lived in horrific conditions in "comfort stations" across Japanese-occupied territories. Barely 10 percent survived to return to Korea, where they lived as social outcasts. Since then, self-declared comfort women have come forward only to have their testimonies and calls for compensation largely denied by the Japanese government.

Kim Soom tells the story of a woman who was kidnapped at the age of thirteen while gathering snails for her starving family. The horrors of her life as a sex slave follow her back…


Book cover of The Future of Silence: Fiction by Korean Women

Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton Why did I love this book?

In the neo-Confucian society of Chosŏn Korea, women were the keepers of the inner quarters and were discouraged from pursuing literacy and education. Such gender-role expectations have persisted so strongly in modern Korea that only in recent decades have women fiction writers achieved parity with their male counterparts. We are fortunate to know, or have known, almost all the writers represented in this anthology and to share their creative vision.

By Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Future of Silence as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

These nine stories span half a century of contemporary writing in Korea (1970s-2010s), bringing together some of the most famous twentieth-century women writers with a new generation of young, bold voices. Their work explores a world not often seen in the West, taking us into the homes, families, lives and psyches of Korean women, men, and children. In the earliest of the stories, Pak Wan-so, considered the elder stateswoman of contemporary Korean fiction, opens the door into two "Identical Apartments" where sisters-in-law, bound as much by competition as love, struggle to live with their noisy, extended families. O Chong-hui, who…


Book cover of The Guest

Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton Why did I love this book?

In The Guest we hear the voices of the victims of a massacre that took place shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, a massacre blamed on the UN (mostly American) military but actually perpetrated by Koreans on Koreans. To allow us access to the stories of these victims the author uses a ritual in which a practitioner of native Korean spirituality channels the voices of those who have died an unnatural or premature death and who continue to wander in the ether until they are able to communicate their stories to those of us still living. Only then can they find closure and settle in the hereafter.

By Hwang Sok-yong, Kyung-Ja Chun (translator), Maya West (translator)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Guest as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Based on actual events, The Guest is a profound portrait of a divided people haunted by a painful past, and a generation's search for reconciliation.
During the Korean War, Hwanghae Province in North Korea was the setting of a gruesome fifty-two day massacre. In an act of collective amnesia the atrocities were attributed to American military, but in truth they resulted from malicious battling between Christian and Communist Koreans. Forty years later, Ryu Yosop, a minister living in America returns to his home village, where his older brother once played a notorious role in the bloodshed. Besieged by vivid memories…


Book cover of The Long Season of Rain

Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton Why did I love this book?

The Long Season of Rain (the title refers to the monsoons that afflict the Korean Peninsula at the start of summer) reminds us that in Hell Chosŏn women remain subservient to men in almost every sphere of society, and learn early on to endure silently instead of speaking out. This novel exemplifies the richness of Korean-American young-adult novels, which often focus on coming of age and the quest for identity. Especially poignant is the author’s use of a naïve narrator, the daughter of a woman who learns that her husband has taken a concubine.

By Helen Kim,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Long Season of Rain as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

When the grey Korean Changma--the rainy season--arrives, eleven-year-old Junehee resigns herself to long months cooped up with her sisters, her mother, and her grandmother. But this year, the Changma brings more than water. Orphaned by a mudslide, a young boy comes to live in Junehee's house--and stirs up long-hidden secrets in her family.

For as the rain drums out its story on the sloped roofs of the village, Junehee's own family story unfolds. And Junehee soon realizes that her mother's sadness is tied to a long-standing tradition that neglects women's dreams--a tradition that Junehee hopes to break free of. .…


Book cover of The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation Is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture

Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton Why did I love this book?

At a time when academics tend to look down their noses at Korean popular culture (Hallyu, literally “the Korean wave”), which in recent years is driving popular culture worldwide, The Birth of Korean Cool is a refreshing analysis based on the supposition that Korea is finally “getting even” with the rest of the world for being underappreciated for thousands of years.

By Euny Hong,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Birth of Korean Cool as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A FRESH, FUNNY, UP-CLOSE LOOK AT HOW SOUTH KOREA REMADE ITSELF AS THE WORLD'S POP CULTURE POWERHOUSE OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

By now, everyone in the world knows the song "Gangnam Style" and Psy, an instantly recognizable star. But the song's international popularity is no passing fad. "Gangnam Style" is only one tool in South Korea's extraordinarily elaborate and effective strategy to become a major world superpower by first becoming the world's number one pop culture exporter.

As a child, Euny Hong moved from America to the Gangnam neighbourhood in Seoul. She was a witness to the most accelerated part…


Explore my book 😀

Book cover of Mina

What is our book about?

A novel about the love-hate relationship between two high school girls, penned by the author who best understands the rage that permeates Hell Chosŏn—the underside of the South Korean Economic Miracle, evidenced by the highest suicide rate among the OECD countries; a negative birthrate; and a divorce rate hovering at 30 percent. (Chosŏn is the name of the most recent monarchy to rule the Korean Peninsula—from 1392 to 1910.)

Book cover of One Left
Book cover of The Future of Silence: Fiction by Korean Women
Book cover of The Guest

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,399

readers submitted
so far, will you?

You might also like...

Follow Me to Africa

By Penny Haw,

Book cover of Follow Me to Africa

Penny Haw Author Of The Invincible Miss Cust

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Storyteller Dog walker Dreamer Runner Reader

Penny's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

Historical fiction inspired by the story of Mary Leakey, who carved her own path to become one of the world's most distinguished paleoanthropologists.

It's 1983 and seventeen-year-old Grace Clark has just lost her mother when she begrudgingly accompanies her estranged father to an archeological dig at Olduvai Gorge on the Serengeti plains of Tanzania. Here, seventy-year-old Mary Leakey enlists Grace to sort and pack her fifty years of work and memories. 

Their interaction reminds Mary how she pursued her ambitions of becoming an archeologist in the 1930s by sneaking into lectures and working on excavations. When well-known paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey…

Follow Me to Africa

By Penny Haw,

What is this book about?

Historical fiction inspired by the story of Mary Leakey, who carved her own path to become one of the world's most distinguished paleoanthropologists.

It's 1983 and seventeen-year-old Grace Clark has just lost her mother when she begrudgingly accompanies her estranged father to an archeological dig at Olduvai Gorge on the Serengeti plains of Tanzania. Here, seventy-year-old Mary Leakey enlists Grace to sort and pack her fifty years of work and memories.

Their interaction reminds Mary how she pursued her ambitions of becoming an archeologist in the 1930s by sneaking into lectures and working on excavations. When well-known paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in family secrets, orphans, and the Korean War?

Family Secrets 209 books
Orphans 178 books
The Korean War 55 books