Employee No. 9

An ordinary man has worked for years installing lines for a telecom company. When he is pressed to resign and refuses, he stays where he is and walks straight into a test the company has set: the files his team leader hands him turn out to mean no work at all. His title changes, his workplace changes again and again, and step by step he loses his name and becomes No. 9, a man who will do whatever the company tells him, whatever it is, without wanting to know what it is for. The novel asks what work does to a person, and whether the one to blame is the man, the company or work itself.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Length

258 pages in the original

Set in

South Korea

First published

2019 by Hankyoreh Publishing

Author's age

36 when first published

ISBN

9791160403008 (original)

9781632064271 (Restless Books, United States)