Category: Literature

“I read Happiness Falls in a single day. I can’t remember a book with more layers—this is a nuanced story about bias, language, ableism, racism, and family dynamics—but above all else this is a story with so many twists and turns I was riveted through the last page.”—Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author

When a father goes missing, his family’s desperate search leads them to question everything they know about him and one

“I read Happiness Falls in a single day. I can’t remember a book with more layers—this is a nuanced story about bias, language, ableism, racism, and family dynamics—but above all else this is a story with so many twists and turns I was riveted through the last page.”—Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author

When a father goes missing, his family’s desperate search leads them to question everything they know about him and one another in this thrilling page-turner, a deeply moving portrait of a family in crisis from the award-winning author of Miracle Creek.

Full of shocking twists and fascinating questions of love, language, and human connection, Happiness Falls is a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. With all the powerful storytelling she brought to her award-winning debut, Miracle Creek, Angie Kim turns the missing-person story into something wholly original, creating an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another.

“Brilliant . . . amazing . . . the claim that a book will change your life often seems like exaggeration. Here the potential is real.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

In her conversation with Susan Choi, Angie Kim discusses her second novel and career.

During the event, Happiness Falls will be available for sale.

The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

About the Author:

Angie Kim moved as a preteen from Seoul, South Korea, to the suburbs of Baltimore. After graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy, she studied philosophy at Stanford University and attended Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Her debut novel, Miracle Creek, won the Edgar Award, the ITW Thriller Award, the Strand Critics’ Award, and the Pinckley Prize and was named one of the best books of the year by Time, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and the Today show. Angie Kim lives in northern Virginia with her family.

About the Moderator:

Susan Choi’s first novel, The Foreign Student, won the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction. Her second novel, American Woman, was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize. Her third novel, A Person of Interest, was a finalist for the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award. In 2010 she was named the inaugural recipient of the PEN/W.G. Sebald Award. Her fourth novel, My Education, received a 2014 Lammy Award. Her fifth novel, Trust Exercise, won the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction, and in 2021 she received the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award for “Flashlight.” She serves as a trustee of PEN America and teaches in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.

 Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and the winner of a PEN/Heim Grant, Cursed Bunny  is the wildly original debut story collection from Bora Chung

Whale is a rollercoaster adventure through Korean history and culture, a magical and grotesque epic…The plot twists and turns and hurtles along in a way that makes you pleasantly dizzy; the imagery and language in the book are also so rich, with the innocence and darkness of a fairy-tale combined with a playful sense of irony.—The International Booker Prize 2023 judges

Shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize and translated by Chi-Young Kim, Whale is the first novel by Cheon Myeong-kwan to be published in English, by Archipelago Books in the U.S. and Europa in the U.K.

Set in a remote village in South Korea, Whale follows the lives of three linked characters: Geumbok, an extremely ambitious woman who has been chasing an indescribable thrill ever since she first saw a whale crest in the ocean; her mute daughter, Chunhui, who communicates with elephants; and a one-eyed woman who controls honeybees with a whistle. Brimming with surprises and wicked humor, Cheon’s story widens to embrace a motley assortment of characters, many of them motivated by lust or vengeance. Spun with the whimsy and humor of a demented deity, Whale curves toward uncharted waters.

In this episode of Author Talks, Cheon Myeong-kwan discusses his career in Korea and his English debut.

The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

About the Speaker:

Cheon Myeong-kwan is a South Korean novelist and screenwriter. Upon publication of his first story, “Frank and I” (2003), he received the prestigious Munhakdongne New Writer Award. His debut novel, Whale, published the following year, won him the 10th Munhakdongne Novel Award, and Chi-Young Kim’s translation has been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. Cheon’s novels have been translated into Chinese, English, French, Thai, Russian, and Vietnamese.

Han Kang’s Booker Prize-winning 2016 novel The Vegetarian solidified her place as a master of the surreal, and is a powerful reminder that what makes surrealist narratives so haunting is the way they illuminate concerns that are real and urgent. Han, one of South Korea’s leading literary voices, joins the Pen America’s World Voices Festival for the North American launch of her new novel, Greek Lessons. Following a female protagonist who loses her voice and seeks out learning Greek as a possible remedy, the book is a poignant exploration of language, the nature of pain, and the need to move on. Join Han in conversation with Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies, for this fascinating conversation of the self and the myriad ways we seek to heal.

The Korea Society is proud to be a Cultural Partner for the World Voices Festival.

All PEN World Voices Festival tickets are non-refundable. Please confirm the time and location of your event before finalizing your purchase.

About the Speaker:

Han Kang was born in 1970 in South Korea. A recipient of the Yi Sang Literary Award, the Today’s Young Artist Award, and the Manhae Prize for Literature, she is the author of The Vegetarian, winner of the International Booker Prize, Human Acts, and The White Book.

About the Moderator:

Katie Kitamura’s most recent novel is the national bestseller Intimacies, which was longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction and was named one of President Barack Obama’s favorite books of Summer 2021. Her previous novel, A Separation, was a finalist for the Premio Gregor von Rezzori and a New York Times Notable Book. It was named one of the best books of the year by over a dozen publications and translated into sixteen languages, and it is being adapted for film. Her two earlier novels, Gone to the Forest and The Longshot, were both finalists for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. A recipient of fellowships from the Lannan Foundation and Santa Maddalena Foundation, Kitamura has written for publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, Granta, BOMB Magazine, Triple Canopy, and Frieze. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University.

A novel about a woman tossed overboard by heartbreak and loss, who has to find her way back to stable shores with the help of a giant Pacific octopus.

Author photo by S. M. Sukardi

One of “22 Works of Fiction to Read This Spring”—The New York Times

A novel about a woman tossed overboard by heartbreak and loss, who has to find her way back to stable shores with the help of a giant Pacific octopus. Sea Change is an “absolutely stunning debut” novel —Frances Cha, author of If I Had Your Face—by Gina Chung.

Ro is stuck. She’s just entered her thirties, she’s estranged from her mother, and her boyfriend has just left her to join a mission to Mars. Her days are spent dragging herself to her menial job at a mall aquarium, and her nights are spent drinking sharktinis (Mountain Dew and copious amounts of gin, plus a hint of jalapeno). With her best friend pulling away to focus on her upcoming wedding, Ro’s only companion is Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus who also happens to be Ro’s last remaining link to her father, a marine biologist who disappeared while on an expedition when Ro was a teenager. When Dolores is sold to a wealthy investor intent on moving her to a private aquarium, Ro finds herself on the precipice of self-destruction. Wading through memories of her youth, Ro has one last chance to come to terms with her childhood trauma, recommit to those around her, and find her place in an ever-changing world.

In a conversation with Frances Cha, Gina Chung talks about her debut novel.

Sea Change will be available for sale during the event.

The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

About the Author:

Gina Chung is a Korean American writer from New Jersey currently living in Brooklyn, New York. A recipient of the Pushcart Prize, she is a 2021-2022 Center for Fiction/Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellow and holds an MFA in fiction from The New School. Her work appears or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, Catapult, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, Idaho Review, The Rumpus, Pleiades, F(r)iction, and Wigleaf, among others, and has been recognized by several contests, including the American Short(er) Fiction Contest, the Los Angeles Review Literary Awards, and the Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest.

About the Moderator:

Frances Cha is the author of the novel If I Had Your Face (Ballantine, 2020), which was named one of the Best Books of the Year by Time Magazine, NPR and BBC among other publications, and is being translated into 11 languages. She is from Korea and worked as a culture editor for CNN in Seoul and Hong Kong. She has taught creative writing at Yonsei University and media studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul and currently teaches undergraduate fiction workshop at Columbia University. Her children’s book The Goblin Twins, set in Korea and New York, is forthcoming from Crown in September, 2023.

Join us for an in-person event with award-winning author, Patricia Park, for the release of her debut YA novel, Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim

Alejandra Verónica Kim doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere. At her wealthy Manhattan high school, her super Spanish name and super Korean face do not compute to her mostly white classmates and teachers. In her Jackson Heights neighborhood, she’s not Latinx enough. Even at home, Ale feels unwelcome. And things at home have only gotten worse since Papi’s body was discovered on the subway tracks. Ale wants nothing more than to escape the city for the wide-open spaces of the prestigious Wyder University. But when a microaggression at school thrusts Ale into the spotlight—and into a discussion she didn’t ask for—Ale must discover what it means to carve out a space for yourself to belong. Patricia Park’s coming-of-age novel about a multicultural teen caught between worlds, and the future she is building for herself, is an incisive, laugh-out-loud, provocative read.

Join us for an in-person event with award-winning author, Patricia Park, for the release of her debut YA novel, Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim. This event will be hosted in the Strand Book Store’s 3rd floor Rare Book Room at 828 Broadway on 12th Street.

This event is co-presented by  The Korea Society, and the Strand.

About the Author:

Patricia Park is an assistant professor of creative writing at American University, a Fulbright Scholar in Creative Arts, a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, and the author of the acclaimed adult novel Re Jane. The Korean American reimagining of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre was named an Editors’ Choice by the New York Times Book Review; a Best Book of 2015 by the American Library Association; an O, The Oprah Magazine pick; and an NPR “Fresh Air” pick, among other honors. Her writing has also appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Guardian, Salon, and others. Patricia lives in Brooklyn, NY.