Open Books Challenge 2026: Set in South Korea or by a South Korean Author

The Open Books Reading Challenge is a year-long reading challenge for people interested in pushing the boundaries of their reading. For full details of the program, please check-out our page at: https://www.rplmn.org/books-more/discover-more/open-books-reading-challenge

These are suggestions that fit the 2026 category "In honor of Rochester's Sister City in Siheung City, South Korea, read a book by a South Korean author, or set in South Korea."

Happy Reading!

Updated December 31, 2025
RPL Staff
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Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop : a novel
Hwang, Po-rum.
Paper Book
Every Day I Read, a new work from Hwang Bo-reum for book-lovers, available now INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER * NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER INDIE NEXT PICK * Debutiful Most Anticipated Book of 2024 * Powell's Pick of the Month * A...
Kim jiyoung, born 1982
Nam-Joo, Cho.
Ebook
The runaway bestseller that has sold over one million copies internationally, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is the most important book to have come out of South Korea since Han Kang's The Vegetarian. Kim Jiyoung is the most common name for Korean women born in the 1980s.
Saha : a novel
Cho, Nam-ju
Paper Book
The much-anticipated follow-up to the multi-million-copy international bestseller Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, Saha is a piercing battle cry for the dispossessed. In a country called Town, Su is found dead in an abandoned car. The suspected killer is presumed to come from the Saha...
Solo leveling. 1
Chugong
Paper Book
Known as the Weakest Hunter of All Mankind, E-rank hunter Jinwoo Sung's contribution to raids amounts to trying not to get killed. Unfortunately, between his mother's hospital bills, his sister's tuition, and his own lack of job prospects, he has no choice but to continue to put his life on the line...
Cursed bunny
Chung, Bora
Paper Book
Seven years of darkness
Chŏng, Yu-jŏng
Paper Book
"You-Jeong Jeong is a certified international phenomenon . . . Genuinely surprising and ultimately satisfying . . . Seven Years of Darkness [bolsters] the case for Jeong as one among the best at writing psychological suspense." --Los Angeles Times NAMED A...
Greek Lessons : A Novel
Kang, Han.
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   NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE * A...
Human acts : a novel
Han, Kang
Paper Book
Gwangju, South Korea, 1980. In the wake of a viciously suppressed student uprising, a boy searches for his friend's corpse, a consciousness searches for its abandoned body, and a brutalised country searches for a voice. In a sequence of interconnected chapters the victims and the bereaved encounter...
Vegetarian : A Novel
Kang, Han.
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 ...
We do not part : a novel
Han, Kang
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FINALIST FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD, THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD, AND THE NBCC BARRIOS BOOK IN TRANSLATION PRIZE
Yeonnam-Dong's smiley laundromat
Kim, Jiyun
Paper Book
For readers who loved Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Book Shop, this heartwarming Korean bestseller tells the story of a mysterious diary left in a laundromat brings together patrons from all walks of life. Yeonnam-Dong's Smiley Laundromat is a place where the...
Beasts of a little land A novel
Kim, Juhea.
Ebook
"A spectacular debut filled with great characters and heart." --Lisa See, author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan FINALIST FOR THE 2022 DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE · FINALIST FOR THE BALCONES FICTION PRIZE · LONGLISTED FOR THE HWA DEBUT CROWN AWARD An epic story of love, war, and...
City of night birds : a novel
Kim, Juhea
Paper Book
REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK "This story left me thinking about the ways we overcome setbacks and redefine what truly matters." - Reese Witherspoon (Reese's Book Club December '24 Pick) A once-famous ballerina faces a final choice--to return to the world of Russian dance that nearly broke...
Pachinko
Lee, Min Jin.
Paper Book
In this New York Times bestseller, four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan-the inspiration for the television series on Apple TV+.  In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored...
Free food for millionaires
Lee, Min Jin
Paper Book
In this One Book, One New York 2019 nominee from the author of National Book Award Finalist Pachinko, the Korean-American daughter of first-generation immigrants strives to join Manhattan's inner circle. Meet Casey Han: a strong-willed, Queens-bred daughter of Korean...
8 lives of a century-old trickster : a novel
Lee, Mirinae
Paper Book
"Fantastically original doesn't begin to describe this exhilarating globe-spanning, decade-hopping masterpiece. Lee has achieved the impossible--from a fractured century of agonies and betrayals, she has woven a novel of immense beauty and regeneration." -- Junot Díaz, author of ...
The robot makers. Book 03, Coding camp chaos
Hong, Chong-hy?n.
Paper Book
When the robot soccer crew and their battle-robot rivals both attend the same coding camp, they get news that ramps up the competition. In the third book in the Robot Makers manhwa series, La Ion has been stuck in the middle of a rivalry between his new school's soccer robot club and...
The robot makers. Book 01, Soccer robots vs. battle robots
Hong, Chong-hyon.
Paper Book
La Ion is happiest when he's on the soccer field with friends. So when he transfers to a new school, he's excited to see if it has a soccer club. But the kids he meets aren't kicking a ball around--they're controlling soccer robots! Soon La Ion is stuck in the middle of a rivalry between...
Love in the big city : a novel
Park, Sang Young
Paper Book
A funny, transporting, surprising, and poignant novel that was one of the highest-selling debuts of recent years in Korea, Love in the Big City tells the story of a young gay man searching for happiness in the lonely city of Seoul Love in the Big City is the English...
Snowglobe
Park, Soyoung
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The groundbreaking Korean phenomenon that Entertainment Weekly called "The Hunger Games meets Squid Game"--now in English for the first time! A COSMOPOLITAN BEST YOUNG ADULT BOOK OF THE YEAR * A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST...
Almond A novel
Sohn, Won-pyung.
Ebook
A BTS fan favorite! A WALL STREET JOURNAL STORIES THAT CAN TAKE YOU ANYWHERE PICK * ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY'S STAY HOME AND READ PICK * SALON'S BEST AND BOLDEST * BUSTLE'S MOST ANTICIPATED  The Emissary meets The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime ...
Door
Yi, Chi-hy n (Illustrator)
Paper Book
A New York Times Editors' Choice Book! "This remarkable wordless picture book bursts with buoyant energy as a boy finds the key to a long-unopened door and makes his way from drabness to a joyful, magical land." --The New York Times Book Review What's...
The starlet and the spy
Yi, Chi-min
Paper Book
"This story of the unlikely meeting of two vulnerable women is a beautifully woven page turner. The battle-weary woman and the pin-up girl who meet, connect, separate: each changed by the brief union." --Heather Morris, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz ...
The Dallergut Dream Department Store : a novel
Yi, Mi-ye.
Paper Book
THE #1 KOREAN BESTSELLER WITH OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD For fans of magical realism and the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series by Toshikazu Kawaguchi comes this cozy fantasy debut. What if there was a store that sold dreams? Which...
The Dallergut Dream-Making District : a novel
Yi, Mi-ye
Paper Book
Take a train ride to where dreams are made... It's been a year since Penny first walked through the doors of the Dallergut Dream Department Store, and surviving a year at the store means one thing... She is now an official employee of the dream industry! She can finally take the...

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