[This Week's Novels] "Excessive Rainbow" and More

Excessive Rainbow

This is the grand prize-winning novel in the fiction category of the 12th Brunch Book Publishing Project. Selected from a pool of 1,000 to 1, this novel was praised as "a work that stands out for its intriguing premise and delicate emotional portrayal, raising expectations for the author's originality and literary potential." The protagonist, who feels excluded from the "You are a precious person" message that appears when searching for "suicide" online, agrees to a life-altering deal. "We will pay off your debt and provide living expenses. However, you must die exactly one hundred days later." The process of striving to die with utmost effort, and the realization encountered at the journey's end, delivers a profound resonance to readers who are each struggling through their own hardships. (Written by Kim Yongjae | JaumgwaMoeum)

Your Paradise

This is the revised edition of "Your Paradise," the debut full-length novel by author Lim Jaehee, which tells the story of four men and women who left their homeland during the Japanese colonial era in the early 20th century to work as labor immigrants on Hawaiian sugarcane plantations. To mark the 80th anniversary of Korea's liberation, Minumsa has published a new edition. The novel depicts the will and hope of the first generation of immigrants as they carve out their destinies in a foreign and barren land. The author, who immigrated to Hawaii in 1985, was inspired by stories of the first generation of Korean immigrants she encountered during her university years, feeling a powerful urge to "write them down," and thus completed this work. The novel was awarded the Excellence Prize at the 9th World Literature Award in 2013. At the time, it was praised for "portraying the love, friendship, and farewells of Hawaii's first-generation immigrants with delicate characterizations and a tense plot. It is certain to become a milestone that opens a new chapter in Korean immigrant literature." (Written by Lim Jaehee | Minumsa)

The Night They Cannot See Is Beautiful

This is a collection of interconnected stories by rising author Baek Sa-hye, who previously gained attention for her award-winning short stories "Connecting Trajectories" and "The Night They Cannot See Is Beautiful." This book expands the universe of the work that won the Korean SF Award of the same name, weaving together six medium-length and short stories. Set against the backdrop of a vast universe, it captures moments of war, resistance, and extinction from the perspectives of different characters. The setting is a distant future Earth, where extreme capitalism has given rise to conglomerates titled "lords" who have replaced the concept of nation-states. These greedy lords reach out into space, sending out pioneering teams, but some members of these teams refuse to return to the Earth dominated by the lords, and the novel depicts their story with meticulous and vivid detail. (Written by Baek Sahye | Hubble)

The End Is Rising

This is the first collection of interconnected stories by Seo Yunbin, who began her literary career after winning the grand prize in the medium and short story category at the 5th Korea Science Literature Award in 2022 with "Luna." The book presents various stories of people coping with events and disasters caused by climate change, structured as a "picaresque" featuring main characters who are villains with a sense of moral cohesion. Set in a world where torrential rain and heatwaves have become commonplace, and blackened beaches melt people's skin, the novel portrays a dark world where young people risk danger to unearth hope buried within. It draws out "memories so faint that even the fact they were once your own is blurred," focusing on the sensations of characters who attempt to form connections even amid catastrophe. (Written by Seo Yunbin | Yeollimwon)

Each One's Garden

This is the first full-length novel by Lee Anri, who made her debut through the 2022 Dong-A Ilbo New Year's Literary Contest. The novel features a character who experiences the power of nature up close. That power is sometimes beautiful and peaceful, but at other times violent and harsh. What matters is that the nature of this power changes depending on the human perspective that receives it. The author says she wanted to write from a different point of view, moving away from the human-centered perspectives of development and conservation of nature. The protagonist is a nine-year-old child for this reason. By focusing on the perspective of a child who has not yet fully experienced nature, the novel highlights the transformation in our view of the natural world. (Written by Lee Anri | Munhakdongne)