[This Week's Books] 'Pyeowol: Chosunjeon' and Others

Pyeowol: Choseon Battle

This is a new work by writer Park Seoryeon, who won the 23rd Hankyoreh Literary Award in 2018 for "Chaegongnyeo Kang Juryong." The author also received the Munhakdongne Young Writers Award in 2021 and the Lee Sang Literary Award Excellence Prize in 2023. Using Choseon, who in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms separated Dongtak and Yeopo with her beautiful looks, as a first-person narrator, the story unfolds a new female narrative. Pyeowol means that her face was so beautiful that even the moon covered its face. The author fuses various stories about Choseon and the contemporary era to create Choseon as a new protagonist. In the novel, Choseon escapes from her parents who try to sell her during a poor and turbulent time and lives as a beggar on filthy streets without proper washing. Using lies learned from the beggar leader, Choseon cunningly deceives others by claiming she is the daughter of a loyal subject and becomes the adopted daughter of Wang Yun, a general of the Han Dynasty. After meeting Wang Yun and ending her beggar life, Choseon openly reveals her desire for an official position. (Park Seoryeon / Eunhaengnamu)

Happy Warehouse Memory Trip

This work carefully depicts the everyday scenes of the 1970s, which the Baby Boom generation passed through. The author joined Sports Seoul as a trainee reporter in 1988, covering baseball and soccer in the sports department and also working as an art reporter in the culture department. The book beautifully and warmly portrays the scenes of 1970s Korean life?such as hanok (traditional Korean houses), briquette gas, large bowls of rice, mixed meal promotion campaigns, and ice pops?that are now difficult to find traces of, sometimes from a close perspective, sometimes from afar. (Written by Park Inkwon / Knowledge and Sensibility)

Climate, Opportunity

This contains the contents of the "2024 Climate Outlook and Strategy: Dialogue with 10 Experts" forum held in January this year at Ferrum Tower in Jung-gu, Seoul, hosted by the Green Transition Research Institute. The forum included ecologist Choi Jaecheon, Ewha Womans University Eco-Science Department Chair Professor; atmospheric scientist Cho Cheonho; and Chae Sumi, head of the Future Disease Response Research Center at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. The forum was organized based on the recognition that urgent changes and social transformation are needed to respond to the climate crisis, while the government is still pursuing past growth-stage economic stimulus policies. Ten climate experts forecast the impacts and issues across various social sectors and discussed concrete action strategies to prepare for them. (Choi Jaecheon et al. / Book Trigger)