Translated Korean books
Korean literature has been steadily rising in recognition and popularity, and many novels have been translated into English to make them more easily accessible to international audiences. Here are 20 translated Korean books that you should add to your to-be-read list ASAP.
Table of Contents
1. Diary Of A Murderer: And Other Stories
Image credit: Mariner Books
- Author: Kim Young Ha
- Translated by: Krys Lee
The title story of Diary Of A Murderer: And Other Stories centres around Kim Byeong Su, a former serial killer who has been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Due to his condition, he has taken to writing down anything that comes into mind, be it observations, unexpected meetings with people or recollections.
When he manages to join the dots of details in his journal, he begins suspecting that his adoptive daughter, Eun Hui, could be the next victim to a serial killer in his neighbourhood. He also comes to a conclusion that this serial killer is her suspicious-looking fiance, and decides to make one last kill in order to protect his daughter.
There are 3 other stories in this collection.
2. Pachinko
Image credit: Grand Central Publishing
- Author: Lee Min Jin
Now a drama series starring Lee Min Ho, Pachinko follows a Korean family through the generations.
Their story begins with Sun Ja, who has romantic relations with a wealthy fishbroker.
When she is about 17 years old, she becomes pregnant, but the fishbroker rejects marrying her as he already has a wife and children.
Sun Ja refuses to be his mistress and instead, becomes the wife of Baek I Sak, a young minister suffering from tuberculosis who offers to marry her and give her and her child another chance at life.
Sun Ja travels with I Sak to Osaka to live with his brother and sister-in-law.
The rest of the novel tells the story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty from this family of Koreans learning to survive in a foreign country.
3. The Vegetarian
Image credit: Hogarth Press
- Author: Han Kang
- Translated by: Deborah Smith
After several frightening nightmares involving blood and violence, Yeong Hye decides to stop eating meat in order to cleanse her mind and body.
However, her sudden choice begins to interrupt her once-peaceful and mundane life as a homemaker.
In a country where societal norms are strictly followed, Yeong Hye’s choice to avoid consuming all meat products is seen as an act of rebellion.
Yeong Hye’s changes begin manifesting in more intense and horrifying ways, sending her to spiral deep into the spaces of her unstable mental state.
4. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
Image credit: Simon & Schuster
- Author: Cho Nam Joo
- Translated by: Jamie Chang
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 revolves around Kim Ji Young, an ordinary woman who becomes a stay-at-home mom after the birth of her first daughter.
The novel shows the discrimination and abuse that Ji Young and the other women in her life have to go through, solely due to their gender.
Ji Young’s own experiences range from seeing her mother have a sex-selective abortion during her early childhood years, to facing workplace discrimination from male colleagues. She was even called a “mum-roach” by strangers when she was taking care of her child in public.
In her book, Cho Nam Joo includes the vivid depiction of discrimination that average Korean women go through, including stigmas regarding menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth.
Fun fact: Despite the controversy that the publication of this book caused, many celebrities have publicly shared their own positive reception towards the novel, including Red Velvet’s Irene, SNSD’s Sooyoung, BTS’ RM, and actress Park Shin Hye.
In 2019, it was also made into a movie of the same name starring Gong Yoo and Jung Yu Mi.
5. Almond
Image credit: HarperVia
- Author: Sohn Won Pyung
- Translated by: Sandy Joosun Lee
Almond talks about Yun Jae, a young boy born with a brain condition called Alexithymia, which prevents him from being able to recognise emotions. This condition is caused by a lack of development of the amygdala neurons in his brain.
Yun Jae thus refers to these underdeveloped almond-shaped neurons and the almonds that his mother feeds him in hopes that they will cure him as his “almonds”.
Thanks to the training and guidance of his mother and grandmother, Yun Jae manages to blend in with the rest of the world as he learns how to mimic normal human emotions.
However, when Yun Jae is 16 years old, an unfortunate accident takes away the lives of his only guardians, and he is left to care for himself.
He then meets Gon, another young boy with a troubled past. Gon is erratic and has an inability to control his own emotions.
As the story unfolds, we witness the strong friendship between the 2 boys and how they develop as people.
6. Please Look After Mom
Image credit: Vintage
- Author: Shin Kyung Sook
- Translated by: Kim Chi Young
Please Look After Mom is an emotional story surrounding a family’s search for their missing mother and the discovery of all the secrets and emotions she hid from them.
After 69-year-old So Nyo splits from her husband and disappears, her whole family becomes distraught. Feeling emotional and at a loss, they quarrel about everything, including the design of the missing person posters to place around the city.
They soon come to realise that none of them have a recent photograph of So Nyo, and when long-harboured secrets and truths are exposed, the family is made to ponder how well they actually knew their own mother.
The novel is told from the perspective of So Nyo’s daughter, son, husband, and eventually from So Nyo’s own point-of-view.
Please Look After Mom is a story that will reveal the greatness of a mother, and the suffering she undergoes, as well as the self-discovery of her children with her disappearance.
7. Human Acts
Image credit: Hogarth Press
- Author: Han Kang
- Translated by: Deborah Smith
Human Acts is another book by author Han Kang. It is a fictional story set against the backdrop of the democratisation uprising of May 1980 that occurred in Gwangju.
In the novel, the violent uprising causes the shocking death of a young boy, Kang Dong Ho.
The story explores the agony during and after the brutal massacre. Each chapter among the 7 in the book introduces a different narrator, all of whom are affected in some way by the uprising.
These characters include Dong Ho’s best friend who also died during the uprising, a worker who collected dead bodies in the aftermath, an activist who suffered sexual abuse during the uprising, and finally the author who lived in Dong Ho’s house before him.
Human Acts aims to tell the tale of people who suffered violence and torture, and now share a collective heartbreak.
8. My Brilliant Life
Image credit: Forge Books
- Author: Kim Ae-ran
- Translated by: Kim Chi Young
My Brilliant Life centres around A Reum, a 16-year-old who suffers from a rare condition called progeria, which causes one to age rapidly.
The story also talks about A Reum’s parents, Mi Ra and Dae Su, who became pregnant with him when they were both 17 years old.
Despite being house-bound, A Reum lives life to the fullest through listening to stories of his parents, reading, and making friends with his 60-year-old neighbour.
When A Reum himself is almost 17, he has to be moved into in-hospital care due to his deteriorating eyes, which lead to blindness.
There, he begins exchanging letters with a 16-year-old girl who also suffers from a terminal illness.
As they continue exchanging emails, A Reum finds himself developing a crush and he feels like a normal child who would fantasise about being with someone they like.
My Brilliant Life is about family, love, and the full breadth of human emotions, from happiness to sadness and from selfishness to graciousness.
9. Untold Night And Day
Image credit: The Overlook Press
- Author: Bae Su Ah
- Translated by: Deborah Smith
Untold Night And Day is about Ayami, a 28-year-old woman who wanted to be an actress and had once acted in a production. She now works in an audio theatre and takes German classes.
After her last night working at the theatre, which will be closing down, she follows her former boss to look for a friend.
The next day, she accompanies a visiting author and shows him around the area.
Amidst the unbearable heat of Seoul in the midst of summer, the edges of reality begin to blur, and the past meddles with the present in an increasingly perplexing manner.
Untold Night And Day is recognised as one of the most gutsy and most creative pieces in modern Korean literature.
10. I Am a Season That Does Not Exist in This World
Image credit: Black Ocean
- Author: Kim Kyung Ju
- Translated by: Jake Levine
I Am a Season That Does Not Exist in the World is a poetry collection with a mix of verse and prose poems.
The book talks about destructive forces, like social isolation, the degradation of our environment, and disease, and human life and emotions.
Some recurring themes include using music as an allegory for human life, child-parent relationships, and self-discovery.
11. I Decided To Live As Me
Image credit: Adarna House
- Author: Kim Soo Hyun
- Translated by: Apop Books
I Decided To Live As Me is a non-fiction self-help book which talks about loving yourself and your life.
It is a full-colour book with minimalist illustrations.
Apart from imparting important messages that teach its readers about self-acceptance and positivity, this book also depicts fun anecdotes that act as a comic relief.
Discussions on larger topics such as social class and politics are also included, encouraging readers to think beyond their immediate perspective.
I Decided To Live As Me is a good book to pick up if you need a reminder that it’s okay to feel lost while adulting, and that struggling with imperfections is completely normal.
12. The Good Son
Image credit: Penguin Books
- Author: Jeong You Jeong
- Translated by: Kim Chi Young
The Good Son is a psychological thriller novel, and the story begins when 26-year-old Han Yu Jin wakes up to a weird yet familiar metallic smell in the air and a phone call from his adoptive brother, Kim Hae Jin.
In their conversation, Yu Jin learns that Hae Jin missed a call from their mother in the middle of the previous night. He called back as he was concerned about her safety when she never called again.
Yu Jin then discovers his mother’s body lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs in his luxurious Incheon apartment.
Having struggled with seizures and losing memories afterwards almost his whole life, Yu Jin is unable to recall what happened the previous night. He only faintly remembers his mother calling his name.
Was she calling out for help? Or begging for Yu Jin’s mercy?
The Good Son is filled with twists and turns that readers might need a second read to understand, especially with Yu Jin being a seemingly unreliable narrator.
13. The Dog Who Dared To Dream
Image credit: Abacus
- Author: Hwang Sun Mi
- Translated by: Kim Chi Young
The Dog Who Dared To Dream is about a dog named Scraggly. She was born with a unique appearance, causing her to look different from the rest of her litter and be disliked by her own mother.
Scraggly spends most of her time in the yard of her owner’s house, sunbathing.
The young puppy has many aspirations and dreams where she is happier and has more freedom. However, Scraggly is constantly faced with challenges that she must overcome.
The Dog Who Dared To Dream is a heartwarming and realistic story about the relationship between dog and man, and a celebration of a dog’s life lived courageously.
14. The Cabinet
Image credit: Angry Robot
- Author: Kim Un Su
- Translated by: Sean Lin Halbert
The Cabinet is a science fiction novel that revolves around the fictional Cabinet 13, an ordinary cabinet that is housed in a research facility in Korea.
When office worker Mr. Kong manages to solve the four-number padlock on the cabinet and opens it, he discovers a bunch of folders that talk about Symptomers, humans with special abilities and strange experiences.
The narrative is shared between Mr. Kong, the lives of the Symptomers, and their interactions, such as when some of them start calling him to ask to be turned into a cat.
The Cabinet is a humorous novel with interesting and out-of-the-ordinary plotlines and characters, written by one of Korea’s most recognised authors.
15. Cursed Bunny
Image credit: Honford Star
- Author: Chung Bora
- Translated by: Anton Hur
Cursed Bunny is a collection of 10 short stories that use fantasy, science fiction and horror to depict the cruelties of patriarchy and consumerism in modern society. One of such stories is titled after the name of the novel.
The plot of the story is about a cursed lamp that is shaped in the form of a bunny that was made for and gifted to the narrator’s grandfather. The crucial detail is that the gifter is the owner of a distillery company that was ruined by a competitor.
Cursed Bunny features short narratives that illustrate human vices and how they cause people to be cruel and unforgiving towards each other.
16. Love In The Big City
Image credit: Grove Press
- Author: Park Sang Young
- Translated by: Anton Tur
Love In The Big City is told from the perspective of a narrator known as Young, whose real name is never revealed. He is a homosexual man who frequents bars in the bustling city of Seoul.
He used to go bar-hopping with his best friend and roommate, Jae Hee, but eventually she too decided to settle down.
Now, Young has to deal with taking care of his sickly mother and finding accompaniment through his relationships with different men, including two who easily caught his interest.
Love In The Big City is a story that talks about romance and the realities of adulting, splashed with humour and emotion.
17. The Hole
Image credit: Arcade
- Author: Pyun Hye Young
- Translated by: Sora Kim-Russell
In The Hole, Oh Gi was a successful professor who was living his dream life as he had a booming career and a prosperous relationship with his wife.
However, after a devastating car accident, his wife was killed, and he became paralysed and unable to talk. After he is discharged from the hospital, he begins his recovery process under the care of his mother-in-law, who is also grieving the loss of her only child.
His mother-in-law rejects his professional therapy sessions for him and chases off his friends who still attempt to visit. Instead, she leaves Oh Gi unattended most of the day, only appearing to feed him a liquid-only diet and to clean his bed.
She occupies herself with uprooting and digging holes in the couple’s garden, which her own daughter used to cultivate and tend diligently. When questioned by Oh Gi about her intentions, she tells him that she is simply finishing what her daughter started.
In his attempt to escape from being a bedridden patient and losing his mind, Oh Gi discovers the hard and cold truth about his deceased wife and the adversities their life together laid upon her.
18. Autobiography Of Death
Image credit: New Directions
- Author: Kim Hye Soon
- Translated by: Choi Don Mee
Autobiography Of Death is a collection of 49 poems. Each poem represents a single day in the afterlife, which is a concept inspired by the Korean superstition that after one’s death, the spirit of the dead travels to a space for 49 days before they experience rebirth.
The poems use crude imagery, which provides a disturbing yet realistic depiction of life and death.
The poet was inspired by events and people in her life, including her ill mother, who eventually passed away, and the Sewol ferry disaster, which took the lives of over 200 Korean high school students.
Autobiography Of Death is a collection that explores death, pain, illness, and reincarnation and life.
19. Lemon
Image credit: Other Press
- Author: Kwon Yeo Sun
- Translated by: Janet Hong
Lemon begins with introducing a murder case known as the “High School Beauty Murder” that occurred in the summer of 2022, wherein 19-year-old beautiful Kim Hae On passed away due to head trauma.
The case goes cold because even though investigations revealed that Shin Jeong Jun, a popular and rich boy who was seen driving with Hae On on the day of her death, and Han Ma Nu, a delivery boy who saw the two in Jeong Jun’s car are suspects in murder, there isn’t sufficient evidence to pin anyone of them to it.
17 years on, Kim Da On, Hae On’s younger sister, decides to uncover the truth on her own because she is unable to move on from the tragedy.
Though it is a mystery and crime novel told from different characters’ perspectives, readers soon realise that importance of the story lies less in finding Hae On’s killer, and more about themes such as jealousy, privilege, trauma, and how to live with one’s own sins.
20. Shoko’s Smile: Stories
Image credit: Penguin Books
- Author: Choi Eun Young
- Translated by: Sung Ryu
In Shoko’s Smile: Stories, there are 7 stories talking about loss and how people who are left behind deal with it.
In the titular Shoko’s Smile, a Japanese high school student Shoko goes onto an exchange programme and travels to a rural town in Korea.
She then forms a friendship with So Yu, the host family’s daughter. Over a period of many years, even after Shoko leaves Korea, the two exchange letters updating each other about their lives and dreams.
Some other stories are noticeably political, touching on geographical topics and tragedies that rocked Korea.
Shoko’s Smile: Stories offers stirring and raw insights about human relationships and emotions.
Translated Korean books you need to put on your bookshelf
From thrillers to romance fiction, as well as self-help books, Korean literature has much to offer for avid and beginner readers. If you are bored of binge-watching K-dramas or K-movies, reading might be the way to go about spending your free time, so bookmark this list and get flipping.
Also check out:
- 11 horror Korean dramas
- 9 aesthetic Korean vloggers
- 12 non-spicy Korean foods
- 20 thriller Korean movies
- 34 thriller Korean dramas
Cover image adapted from: Honford Star, Other Press, Mariner Books