Welcome to Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum, Translated by Shanna Tan
Print Length: 320 pages
Format: eBook
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Genre: Urban fiction, Korean fiction, fiction
Every action has equal and opposite reactions—consequences if you will. “Welcome to Hyunam-Dong Bookshop” is a collection of stories featuring mostly young adults who, through the organic flow of life, have walked into this bookshop and become an integral part of it in various ways. It beautifully illustrates how independent bookshops foster communication and create community gatherings that might not otherwise happen, thanks to the busy lifestyles many of us lead.
The protagonist, Yeongju, is a woman in her 30s who left her corporate job of ten years to fulfill her childhood dream of opening a bookshop using her savings. She never aimed to make it the best or longest-lasting; she simply wanted to pursue her passion for reading. However, opening the bookshop in Seoul led to unexpected opportunities, connections, and events that she had never imagined possible. Such is the magic of bookshops.
I still clearly remember my days of interning at an independent second-hand bookshop in Edinburgh (Main Point Books) and how a variety of customers would come in and query about rare, vintage, and books that were long forgotten. Although I primarily worked with the bookshop owner helping them with their event planning, I still had the pleasure of learning the ropes of working at a bookshop in such a short period. Ok, back to our story!
When Yeongju hired her first employee, Minjun, a novice barista, everything at her in-store café began to improve. Customers who initially came for the books started to stay for the delicious coffee. Minjun dedicated himself to improving his coffee-making techniques every day at the shop.
“In the past, she used to live by mantras like passion and willpower, as if by imprinting the words on her mind, they would somehow breathe meaning into her life. Then one day she realised it felt like she was driving herself into a corner, and she resolved never to let those words dictate her life again. Instead, she learnt to listen to her body, her feelings, and be in happy places. She would ask herself these questions: does this place make me feel positive? Can I be truly whole and uncompromisingly myself? Do I love and treasure myself here? For Yeongju, the bookshop checked all the boxes.”
The beauty of this book lies in its simplicity and in the characters’ thoughts about their lives and the choices that have brought them to their current situations. A major theme is the intense burnout that comes from competition, constant work, and the struggle to find meaningful jobs in South Korea. Many characters share their feelings about these issues, making the story very relatable to today’s tough environment, where many people are questioning their jobs and looking for work that is both fulfilling and enjoyable. Through the daily routines of long hours, low pay, and uncertainty about life’s purpose, the characters’ reflections explore these concerns based on their personal experiences. The bookshop not only creates a community of readers but also shares stories and ideas for those seeking answers.
‘That said, the problem is that our society is too obsessed with work, and working takes away too many things from us. It’s like we surface from the depths of work to get a breather, only to feel thoroughly spent. And when we return home after a long workday, we no longer have energy for leisure time or hobbies.
Also, Yeongju often quotes various books she has read to encourage conversations and emphasize her thoughts.
“When significant proportions of our time are spent working, recuperating from work, compensating for work, or doing the many things necessary in order to find, prepare for, and hold on to work, it becomes increasingly difficult to say how much of our time is truly our own.”
– Frayne, Refusal, 93.
Overall, this book feels like a warm hug. It encourages you to slow down and appreciate the beauty found in everyday moments—such as making a cup of coffee, enjoying a good meal, spending time on your hobbies or plants, writing in a journal, spending time with closed ones, or working on personal projects. These activities help rejuvenate you from the exhaustion of work. The author’s notes beautifully capture these sentiments.
“You might not notice right away, but everyone in the novel is taking small steps forward, whether it’s learning something new, or making a change to their lives. What they’re doing might be far from achieving what society deems as success, but they’re growing and changing through their consistent efforts – taking several steps away from where they started off. How others judge where they stand – be it high or low, good or bad – doesn’t matter to them. The fact that they’ve progressed, and are happy where they are, is sufficient. The yardstick to measure one’s life lies within oneself. And that’s good enough.”
If you love stories about people from daily life, don’t miss this one!
Ratings on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being exceptional):
Quality of writing: 8
Pace: 7
Plot development: 7
Characters: 8
Enjoyability: 8
Insightfulness: 9
Ease of reading: 10
Photo/Illustrations: NA
About The AuthoR
Hwang Bo-reum studied computer science and worked as a software engineer. She wrote several essay collections: I Read Every Day, I Tried Kickboxing for the First Time and This Distance is Perfect.
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop is her first novel, which has sold over 150,000 copies in Korea and been sold into 9 territories. Before its release as a paperback, the novel was initially published as an e-book after winning an open contest co-organised by Korean content-publishing platform ‘Brunch’.
Shanna Tan is a Singaporean translator working from Korean, Chinese and Japanese into English. She was selected for two emerging literary translator mentorships in 2022, where she was mentored by Anton Hur and Julia Sanches. Her prose translations have appeared in The Southern Review, The Common, Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture and more.
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