BOOK CLUB REPORT - August 2026
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum
By Sharon Stern
We met to discuss the book Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum and translated by Shanna Tan on July 26th. The novel is the first for author Hwang Bo-reum, who only had short stories published previously.
The novel tells the story of Yeongju who is burned out from a high-paced career that has left her without meaning in her life. She takes a chance and opens a bookstore, which has been a lifelong dream, but truly just a dream. She isn’t sure how to really connect with the bookstore or customers when she begins and sits in her own burned-out sorrow, but as she gets to know a few consistent customers, reflects on what she imagines a good bookstore to be and hires a barista who ends up taking his job very seriously, a community begins to form.
I really, really liked this book, but it seems I was in the minority in my overwhelming praise. No one disliked the book, but they thought that there were too many characters that weren’t well enough developed. Another issue is that there are multiple pairs of characters whose names are very similar, which made the tracking of the characters a bit difficult. I thought the fact that you only got snippets of character’s personalities made it feel like you were sitting in the bookstore, casually conversing with people at different moments in time. Other readers thought this didn’t let you really get to know characters deeply enough. At the end of the book, the characters had evolved from where they started, but some of their stories were left hanging a bit.
One of the themes of the book is the ability to separate oneself from work and not having to follow the path that society assumes is the best – working hard in school to get a good career and climbing as high as you can in that career. In addition, the idea that work does not have to be your identity. One person thought the way this was presented came across a little preachy.
The main character has a difficult time until she finds and forms community. We talked about the importance of community and that a good community can form across gender identity and age, as happened to the characters in the book. One young character in the book decides (not because he failed entrance exams – he doesn’t even take them) to not go to college, which is a somewhat controversial idea still in Korea. The fact that he was allowed to find his own path was refreshing.
The book was definitely in the feel-good genre and left you reflecting on self-identity and work-life balance.
August Dosan Hakdang: The Investigation by J.M. Lee
For August, we will be reading the book The Investigation by J.M. Lee.
Fukuoka Prison, 1944. Beyond the prison walls, the war rages. Inside, a man is found brutally murdered. What follows is a searing portrait of Korea before their civil war, and a testimony to the redemptive power of poetry.
Watanabe Yuichi, a young guard with a passion for reading, is ordered to investigate a murder. The victim, Sugiyama, also a guard, was feared and despised throughout the prison and inquiries have barely begun when a powerful inmate confesses. But Watanabe is unconvinced; and as he interrogates both the suspect and Yun Dong-ju, a talented Korean poet, he starts to realize that the fearsome guard was not all he appeared to be...
As Watanabe unravels Sugiyama's final months, he begins to discover what is really going on inside this dark and violent institution, which few inmates survive: a man who will stop at nothing to dig his way to freedom; a governor whose greed knows no bounds; a little girl whose kite finds an unlikely friend. And Yun Dong-ju—the poet whose works hold such beauty the can break the hardest of hearts.
As the war moves towards its devastating close and bombs rain down upon the prison, Watanabe realizes that he must find a way to protect Yun Dong-ju, no matter what it takes. As he digs further and further in to his investigation, the young guard discovers a devastating truth.
At once a captivating mystery and an epic lament for lost freedom and humanity, The Investigation, inspired by a true story, is a sweeping and gripping tale by an international literary star.
Join us August 30th at 2pm Eastern for our discussion about this important work. RSVP here.
