Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop - Hardcover

by Hwang Bo-Reum (Author), Shanna Tan (Translator)

AN INDIE NEXT PICK * A Debutiful Most Anticipated Book of 2024 * Powell's Pick of the Month

The Korean smash hit available for the first time in English, a slice-of-life novel for readers of Matt Haig's The Midnight Library and Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of AJ Fikry.

Yeongju is burned out. She did everything she was supposed to: go to school, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. In a leap of faith, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop. In a quaint neighborhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and her customers take refuge. From the lonely barista to the unhappily married coffee roaster-and the writer who sees something special in Yeongju-they all have disappointments in their past. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop becomes the place where they all learn how to truly live.

A heartwarming story about finding acceptance in your life and the healing power of books, Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop is a gentle reminder that it's never too late to scrap the plot and start again.

Author Biography

Hwang Bo-reum has authored several essay collections: I Read Every Day, I Tried Kickboxing for the First Time, and This Distance Is Perfect. Welcome to Hyunam-dong Bookshop is her first full-length novel. Before its release as a paperback, the novel was initially published as an ebook after winning an open contest co-organized by Korean content-publishing platform "Brunch." She lives in Seoul.

Shanna Tan is a Singaporean translator working from Korean, Chinese, and Japanese into English. She was selected for two emerging translator mentorships in 2022, where she was mentored by Anton Hur for Korean prose and Julia Sanches for Singapore literature (from Chinese). Her prose translations have appeared or are forthcoming in The Southern Review, The Common, Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture, and others. She lives in Singapore.