Every year, France, Japan, Brazil and more crown their best book. Spin the globe to see which ones you can read in English, and which are still waiting.
4,667 books · 44 prizes · 39 countries
Showing 13 of 195 books. 182 aren’t in English yet: show all.
Yi Sang 2011 · Excellence prize
아무도 돌아오지 않는 밤 · Amudo doraoji anneun bam
Kim Soom · 36 when first published
Short story · 135 pages
AI-generated summary:A woman who shares her home with her elderly father-in-law, and can hardly bear even to eat with him, sits up one night waiting for him, for her husband and for a neighbour from flat 202, and nobody comes home.
Yi Sang 2010 · Excellence prize
무종 · Mujong
Bae Suah · 44 when first published
Short story · 212 pages
AI-generated summary:On a strange night the narrator goes looking for the Mujong tower alongside a man who collects model planes, and the search drifts into memories of hunting for rooms to rent all over Europe until dream and waking blur.
Yi Sang 2010 · Excellence prize
통조림공장 · Tongjorim gongjang
Pyun Hye-young · 37 when first published
Short story · 103 pages
AI-generated summary:At a canning factory that has run like clockwork for decades, people vanish without a sound, as if sealed into tins themselves, while the production line carries on unchanged.
Yi Sang 2009 · Excellence prize
두 번째 왈츠 · Du beonjjae walcheu
Jeon Sungtae · 39 when first published
Short story · 220 pages
AI-generated summary:In Mongolia, Nyama has carried since socialist times the role of a national emblem, 'the woman of the fatherland', and her life opens onto the country's past and present.
Yi Sang 2009 · Excellence prize
봄날 오후, 과부 셋 · Bomnal ohu, gwabu set
Jeong Ji-a · 43 when first published
Short story · 93 pages
AI-generated summary:Eiko, Haruko and Sadako, three widows past eighty who have leaned on one another like sisters all their lives, set out together on a spring afternoon.
Yi Sang 2009 · Excellence prize
그리고, 축제 · Geurigo, chukje
Lee Hye-kyung · 48 when first published
Short story · 114 pages
AI-generated summary:Separated from her patient husband since a childhood sexual assault came back to haunt her, Kang Ji-seon goes to Indonesia on a reporting trip, among people still living with the Bali bombings.
Yi Sang 2008 · Excellence prize
목신의 어떤 오후 · Moksinui eotteon ohu
Jung Young-moon · 42 when first published
Short story · 294 pages
AI-generated summary:Three people picnic on open ground beside a lake, a pipe-smoking man, his cousin and the narrator who lives with her, and go over stories they all know while crows hang about and rain clouds gather.
Yi Sang 2007 · Excellence prize
첫 번째 기념일 · Cheot beonjjae ginyeomil
Pyun Hye-young · 34 when first published
Short story · 192 pages
AI-generated summary:A delivery driver on the edge of a city dreams of a new life, having his ID photo taken every day and rewriting his CV, though he knows his record will never get him a job in the city.
Yi Sang 2006 · Winner
밤이여, 나뉘어라 · Bamiyeo, nanwieora
Jung Mi-kyung · 45 when first published
Short story · 219 pages
AI-generated summary:A film director who has measured his whole life against a brilliant friend finds that friend ruined, and tries to wipe the sight from his memory.
Yi Sang 2005 · Winner
몽고반점 · Monggo banjeom
Han Kang · 34 when first published
Short story · 183 pages · Family
AI-generated summary:A video artist becomes obsessed with his sister-in-law, who has stopped eating meat, after his wife mentions that she still has a Mongolian spot on her buttock, and asks her to model for his work.
Yi Sang 2004 · Excellence prize
그림자 아이 · Geurimja ai
Ha Seong-nan · 36 when first published
Short story · 350 pages
AI-generated summary:His memory wiped out by an accident, a man lives in a sanatorium; his family's visits bring nothing back, and instead he grows fixated on a deserted bike fitted with a child's seat that stands in view of his window.
Yi Sang 2004 · Excellence prize
발칸의 장미를 내게 주었네 · Balkanui jangmireul naege jueonne
Jung Mi-kyung · 43 when first published
Short story · 130 pages
AI-generated summary:With his wife and children sent off to America, a lonely man starts an affair with Jaei, a nurse who lives one floor away from him, on the understanding that neither of them will ask too much of the other.
Yi Sang 2003 · Excellence prize
자전소설 · Jajeon soseol
Ha Seong-nan · 35 when first published
Short story · 350 pages