I've been dipping into "Lost Souls", a volume of short stories by Hwang Sunwon.

One that has particularly caught my attention is "Booze", written in 1945.

Following the August 15th liberation of Korea from Japanese rule, the Nakamura distillery is to be taken over by Koreans. Which Koreans though? As we follow the head clerk Chunho's attempts to manage the takeover, his household, and himself, we see a decent individual struggling with challenges going way beyond a change of name for the distillery.

"Booze" not only absorbed me in its narrative but also made me think about both decolonization and writing about decolonization.

#HwangSunWon #KoreanLiterature #Booze #ShortStories #Books #TwentiethCenturyLiterature #Postcolonialism #AsianLiterature #Korea

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/lost-souls/9780231149686/

𝟯 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄: “𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗲𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻” 𝗯𝘆 𝗛𝗮𝗻 𝗞𝗮𝗻𝗴 -

A surreal/but-real tale of a woman who dares to make her own choices and of the struggles of family (most male) who cannot contend with it.

#bookreviews #books #bookworm #readreadread #3words #hankang #thevegetarian #nobelprize #koreanliterature #asianliterature

'Kitchen' by Banana Yoshimoto

"...providing the reader with authentic characters who grapple with themselves and society as they contemplate life, death, loss, grief, sorrow, and reconciliation in the aftermath of real tragedy..."

https://booksperience.org/2023/10/15/ikitchen-i-by-banana-yoshimoto/

#AsianLiterature #BananaYoshimoto #Contemporary, #Death, #Family, #Fiction, #Home, #Japan, #JapaneseLiterature, #Kitchen, #Life, #LiteraryFiction, #Love, #Mothers, #Novella, #Orphan, #ShortStory, #Tragedy #books #reading #booksperience

'Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales' by Yoko Ogawa

https://booksperience.org/2023/07/18/irevenge-eleven-dark-tales-i-by-yoko-ogawa/

#AsianLiterature, #Eerie, #ElevenDarkTales, #Fantasy, #Fiction, #Horror, #Japan, #JapaneseHorror, #JapaneseLiterature, #Macabre, #Mystery, #ShortStories, #YokoOgawa

"Lotus blossoms."

What the Cold War did for the Afro-Asian literary movement.

#culture #literature #AfricanLiterature #AsianLiterature

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/what-the-cold-war-did-for-the-afro-asian-literary-movement-essay-peter-kalliney/

Currently reading: Out
Author: Natsuo Kirino

I'm 40 pages in and I'm loving this. Potentially an amazing read. But the scenes are incredibly vivid and graphic. Approach this #book with discretion, as it's quite dark and disturbing.

#booktwt #booktoot #AsianLiterature #JapaneseLiterature

For a few months now I've been working on my 100-poem collection tentatively entitled "Ad Infinitum," a project which inspiration had just slowly emerged in between my philosophical and scientific work. Excited to share it with you soon!

#poems #poetry #newwork #literary #literature #writing #writinglife #thoughts #philosophy #science #saturday #writerscommunity #writersofphilippines #philippines #philippineliterature in #english #asianliterature #writersofmastodon