Unmissable Korean Novels

K-Pop bands, K-dramas and webtoons have become widely popular in recent years. But how about Korean novels? Check out our hand-picked titles for fans of Korean culture everywhere!

Updated June 18, 2025
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The plotters
Kim, ?n-su
Paper Book
The important thing is not who pulls the trigger but who's behind the person who pulls the trigger - the plotters, the masterminds working in the shadows. Raised by Old Raccoon in The Library of Dogs, Reseng has always been surrounded by plots to kill - and by books that no one ever reads. In Seoul...
Whale
Ch'ŏn, Myŏng-gwan
Paper Book
A sweeping, multi-generational tale blending fable, farce and fantasy.
8 lives of a century-old trickster
Lee, Mirinae
Paper Book
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER'Captivating' New York Times'Dazzling' Financial Times'A cracking read' Historical Novel SocietySLAVE. ESCAPE-ARTIST. MURDERER. TERRORIST. SPY. LOVER. MOTHER. TRICKSTER.At the Golden Sunset retirement home, it is not...
Concerning My Daughter
Hye-jin, Kim.
Paper Book
THE PRIZE-WINNING INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Told in a brutally honest voice that at times simmers with impotent rage, author Kim Hye-jin taps into both the complexities of mother-daughter dynamics and the systemic issues and obstacles that LGBTQ+ communities face in heteronormative...
Love in the big city
Pak, Sang-y?ng
Paper Book
Love in the Big City is an energetic, joyful, and moving novel that depicts both the glittering nighttime world of Seoul and the bleary-eyed morning-after. Young is a cynical yet fun-loving Korean student who pinballs from home to class to the beds of recent Tinder matches. He and Jaehee...
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop
Hwang, Po-rŭm
Paper Book
**AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER** WATERSTONES BEST FICTION BOOKS OF 2023 PICK WOMAN & HOME NOVEMBER BOOK OF THE MONTH iPaper TOP FICTION PICK 'An absolutely charming novel that all bookworms will adore' Red
If I had your face
Cha, Frances
Paper Book
A riveting debut novel set in contemporary Seoul, Korea, about four young women making their way in a world defined by impossible standards of beauty, after-hours room salons catering to wealthy men, ruthless social hierarchies, and K-pop mania   "Powerful and...
Mater 2-10
Sok-yong, Hwang.
Paper Book
In contemporary Seoul, a laid-off worker stages a months-long sit-in atop a sixteen-storey factory chimney. During the long and lonely nights, he talks to his ancestors, chewing on the meaning of life, on wisdom passed down the generations. Through the lives of those ancestors, three...
Your neighbour's table
Ku, Py?ng-mo
Paper Book
'An important literary piece of feminist activism' 'Taps into the everyday minutiae of motherhood, baring to all the unspoken labours that women take on both inside and out of parenthood' 'Really made me reflect on what it actually means to be a part of...
Y/N
Yi, Esther
Paper Book
Surreal, hilarious, and shrewdly poignant-a novel about a Korean American woman living in Berlin whose obsession with a K-pop idol sends her to Seoul on a journey of literary self-destruction.
When we fell apart
Wiley, Soon
Paper Book
ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022:  Harper's Bazaar  *  Vogue  *  Good Housekeeping  *  CrimeReads  *  BookBub  *  Veranda  *  Shondaland  *  Debutiful  *  PureWow *  and more! ...
Greek Lessons
Kang, Han.
Paper Book
In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight. Soon they discover a deeper pain binds them together. For...
The vegetarian : a novel
Han, Kang
Paper Book
FROM HAN KANG, WINNER OF THE 2024 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE "[Han Kang's] intense poetic prose . . . exposes the fragility of human life."--The Nobel Committee for Literature, in the citation for the Nobel Prize A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ...
The Trunk
Ryeo-ryeong, Kim.
Paper Book
**NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX TV SERIES, STARRING GONG YU AND SEO HYUN-JIN ** Read the gripping international feminist satire for fans of KIM JIYOUNG BORN 1982, CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN and YELLOWFACE. 'So this is the world we live in, where even spouses can be rented'...
Shoko's smile
Ch'oe, Ŭn-yŏng
Paper Book
In crisp, unembellished prose, Choi Eunyoung paints intimate portraits of the lives of young women in South Korea, balancing the personal with the political. In the title story, a fraught friendship between an exchange student and her host sister follows them from adolescence to adulthood. In 'A...
Miss Kim knows : and other stories
Cho, Nam-ju
Paper Book
FROM THE AUTHOR OF KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982 'There is laughter and joy to be found in these pages, along with the kind of laughter that sets two women over 50 rolling in the snow with tears streaming down their frozen cheeks and the aurora borealis dancing above them.' The...
Winter in Sokcho
Dusapin, Élisa Shua
Paper Book
It's winter in Sokcho, a tourist town on the border between South and North Korea. The cold slows everything down. Bodies are red and raw, the fish turn venomous, beyond the beach guns point out from the North's watchtowers. A young French Korean woman works as a receptionist in a tired guesthouse....
The island of Sea Women
See, Lisa
Paper Book
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "A mesmerizing new historical novel" (O, The Oprah Magazine) from Lisa See, the bestselling author of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, about female friendship and devastating family secrets on a small Korean island. ...
Kim Jiyoung, born 1982 : Palsip yi nyeon saeng Kim Jiyeong
Cho, Nam-ju
Paper Book
One of the most notable novels of the year, hailed by both critics and K-pop stars alike, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 follows one woman's psychic deterioration in the face of rampant misogyny. In a tidy apartment on the outskirts of Seoul, millennial "everywoman" Kim Jiyoung spends her days caring for...

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