James Nicoll Reviews

Gu Byeong-Mo’s 2018 Apartment Women is a stand-alone mainstream novel. The 2024 English translation is by Chi-Young Kim.

Is Apartment Women also a dystopia? More on that later.

For Seo Yojin, husband Joen Euno, and six-year-old Jeon Siyul, the Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a solution to pressing housing issues. Getting in wasn’t easy, but Yojin and her family were among the lucky few to be selected.

One small catch: The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to address South Korea’s negligible birthrate. In exchange for new homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need to be met.

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Gu Byeong-Mo’s The Old Woman with the Knife is a stand-alone thriller. First published as Pagwa in 2013, the 2022 English translation is by Chi-Young Kim.

Hornclaw is an unremarkable-appearing sixty-five-year-old woman. Hornclaw conscientiously avoids any detail that might stick in people’s minds. After all, it would not do to be a memorable-appearing ​“disease control specialist” … or as the police might phrase it if they ever caught her, assassin for hire.

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