BOOK CLUB REPORT - June 2026
KCCNYC Dosan Hakdang May Meeting - The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly
By Sharon Stern
On May 31st, we gathered to talk about the book The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by Sun-mi Hwang. This book was an enormous success in Korea Our gathering ended up being all women, which added an interesting perspective, since the book focuses on motherhood.
The story follows a laying hen named Sprout who is frustrated by being locked up in a coop, having to produce eggs every day. She has reached her egg-laying limit and dreams of being free to walk around the yard with the other animals. When the farmer and his wife pull her out of the coop to cull her, her adventure begins. She ends up sitting on a duck egg for a farm duck that is killed by the wily weasel that roams around the farm and surrounding areas. The father of the duckling is a wild mallard that helped Sprout escape from the weasel when she was taken out of the coop. Sprout hatches the egg and is able to fulfill her dream of being a mother, but not without peril and criticism.
Everyone’s take on the story was a little different, which made the discussion lively and interesting. A couple of people mentioned that the book can be triggering for adoptees, since it deals with an adopted baby. Several mothers in the discussion liked the maternal imagery, the fact that Sprout was able to fulfill her desire for motherhood and the sacrifices she made to get there. Also, the fact that the weasel, the protagonist, ended up being a mother and needing to care for her babies gave us empathy for all of the characters.
A couple of people thought the book had you focus on the use of animals to humans, as opposed to their value as living beings. This was highlighted by the fact that each animal had its place on the farm and the laying hens were caged. But the animal imagery helped us reflect on our own basic instincts and feelings. We agreed that the traumas represented helped us reflect on how trauma changes you.
We spent a little time comparing illustrations in the English versus different Korean versions, which was interesting – all of the illustrations were beautiful, but the set very different moods.
Eun helped us understand that the use of a chicken and not another bird as the main character was symbolically significant in Korean. Chickens are sometimes used as an image of a cackling female. We also explored the fact that this was a chicken – an animal that doesn’t really fly – wanting to fly, while the duckling she raised could easily fly. Powerful imagery.
The story has many sad and challenging moments and ends in a bittersweet way, but we all enjoyed reading it and recommend that you do too!
June DOSAN HAKDANG:
Love in the Big City with Park Sang Young
For June’s Dosan Hakdang Book Club, we will not only be reading Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park, but we will also be joined by Sang Young Park for our discussion. We feel very honored that Sang Young Park will be joining us to talk about his book.
This very successful novel has had nine printings and been made both into a movie and a K-drama series (both available on Viki).
The novel explores the life of Park Young, a young, gay man in Seoul, in four interconnected sections. It follows him through his friendship with roommate Jaehee during their college years – a relationship that grows distant when Jaehee marries. It then spends time exploring his relationship with his long-time partner Gyo-ho. It also takes us through Park Young’s relationship with his mother who he ends up caring for and who is an Evangelical that sent him to conversion therapy. The novel beautifully explores transitions from youth to adulthood, friendships as well as loneliness, the search for love and meaning and the complex relationships of family.
Please join us on June 21st, 2026 at 8PM Eastern to share a conversation about this best-selling Korean novel about a young gay man searching for happiness in Seoul! Please note that the time is different from our usual time slot.
You can RSVP here for the June Book Club meeting. Submit your Q&A questions for the author here.
July Dosan Hakdang: Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum
This best-selling book gives us a hopeful story. Yeongiu has done everything she is supposed to in order to feel successful, but she feels burned out. She went to school, got married, had a great career and a busy life in Seoul. On a leap of faith and nostalgia for an abandoned dream, she quits her job, gets a divorce and opens a bookshop. Both she and her customers take refuge in the shop. She has a rocky start, but when she focuses on what makes a successful bookshop, she finds her footing. She throws herself into reading, starts a book club with author talks and forms her philosophy of bookselling.
This book explores the healing power of books and gives hope to the idea that it is never too late to begin again.
RSVP here to join us for the July Book Club discussion on July 26th at 2:00 pm Eastern time.
