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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Nineteen
Angkko
Paper Book
"[Ancco's] stories liberate us to be what we are: friends, artists, monsters, mothers, human beings."-- The Globe and Mail At nineteen, the idea that you have your whole life ahead of you with endless possibilities can leave you terrifyingly stiff. Throwing...
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop: The Heart-Warming Korean Sensation
Bo-reum, Hwang
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
Cho, Nam-ju
Paper Book
Truly, flawlessly, completely, she became that person. In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul lives Kim Jiyoung. A thirtysomething-year-old "millennial everywoman," she has recently left her white-collar desk job--in order to care for her newborn...
Cursed bunny
Chung, Bora
Paper Book
A wildly original novel from a rising star of Korean literature--surreal, chilling fables that take on the patriarchy, capitalism, and the reign of big tech with absurdist humor and a (sometimes literal) bite.    From an author never before published in...
Midnight Timetable: A Novel in Ghost Stories
Chung, Bora
Paper Book
From the author and translator of the National Book Award finalist and Booker Prize shortlisted Cursed Bunny, comes a novel-in-ghost-stories, set in a mysterious research center that houses cursed objects, where those who open the wrong door might find it's disappeared behind them, or that...
Your utopia
Chung, Bora
Paper Book
From the acclaimed author and translator of the National Book Award Finalist, Cursed Bunny, a fresh, uncanny, and utterly profound collection of stories set in near and distant futures that reflect our deepest fears--and deepest desires.  ...
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...
Grass
Gendry-Kim, Keum Suk
Paper Book
Appeared on best of the year lists from The New York Times, The Guardian, and more! Winner of The Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Print Comic of the Year! Grass is a powerful antiwar graphic novel, telling the life story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee...
Bluebeard's first wife
Ha, Sŏng-nan
Paper Book
A woman spends a night with her fiance and his friends and overhears a terrible secret that has bound them together since high school. A man grows increasingly agitated by the apartment noise made by a young family living upstairs and arouses the suspicion of his own wife when the neighbours meet a...
The mermaid from Jeju : a novel
Hahn, Sumi
Paper Book
A POPSUGAR Best Book of December 2020 An AMAZON Editors Pick December 2020 A SHE READS Best Historical Fiction Novel Winter 2021 A BUSTLE Most Anticipated Winter 2021 Read A LIBRO.FM Influencer Pick, December 2020 Inspired by true events on Korea's Jeju Island...
Greek lessons : 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   NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE * A...
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
When things don't go your way : Zen wisdom for difficult times
Hyemin
Paper Book
Have you ever felt like life has thrown you a curveball? Are you struggling to overcome unexpected challenges and setbacks? While loss, heartbreak, and loneliness are all part of the human experience, in this warm guide, internationally bestselling author Haemin Sunim shows us that these moments can...
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...
The old woman with the knife : a novel
Ku, Pyŏng-mo
Paper Book
*A New York Times Book Review Notable Book* *An NPR Best Book of the Year* *An NPR Book We Love* *A New York Times Editors' Choice Pick* *A Most Anticipated Read in LitHub, CrimeReads, Thrillist, and Popsugar* *A Boston Globe Thriller...
Brother's keeper
Lee, Julie (Children's fiction writer)
Paper Book
With war looming on the horizon and winter setting in, can two children escape North Korea on their own? WINNER OF THE FREEMAN BOOK AWARD! North Korea. December, 1950. Twelve-year-old Sora and her family live under an iron set of rules: No travel without...
Pachinko
Lee, Min Jin
Paper Book
One of the New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century 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...
Free food for millionaires /
Lee, Min Jin.
Ebook
From the New York Times bestselling author of Pachinko, a "mesmerizing" novel about the Korean-American daughter of first-generation immigrants striving to join Manhattan's inner circle (USA Today). Casey Han is a strong-willed, Queens-bred daughter of...
8 lives of a century-old trickster : a novel
Lee, Mirinae
Ebook
"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 ...
Snowglobe 2
Pak, So-yo?ng
Paper Book
The groundbreaking Korean phenomenon that Entertainment Weekly called "The Hunger Games meets Squid Game" continues with even more dark secrets and shocking surprises. The temperature is rising and the truth at the center of Chobahm's frozen world will be revealed in the...
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...
Violets
Sin, Kyŏng-suk
Audiobook
At dusk
Sok-yong, Hwang.
Paper Book
In the evening of his life, a wealthy man begins to wonder if he might have missed the point. Parl Minwoo is a success story. Born into poverty in a miserable neighbourhood of Seoul, he has ridden the wave of development in his country. Now the director of a large architectural...
Almond : a novel
Son, W¿n-p'y¿ng
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)
Ebook
What's on the other side of the door? There's only one way to find out: You'll have to go through it. JiHyeon Lee's debut book, Pool, was lauded as a wordless masterpiece. Here she takes readers on another journey into an unexpected world. Delicate drawings transform from grays to vivid...
The picture bride
Yi, KÅ­m-i
Paper Book
Winner of the Nautilus Award for Historical Fiction "Lee Geum-yi has a gift for taking little-known embers of history and transforming them into moving, compelling, and uplifting stories. The Picture Bride is the ultimate story of the power of friendship--a must read...
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...
Close encounters with humankind : a paleoanthropologist investigates our evolving species
Yi, Sang-h i (Professor of anthropology)
Paper Book
What can fossilized teeth tell us about the life expectancy of our ancient ancestors? How did farming play a problematic role in the history of human evolution? How can simple geometric comparisons of skull and pelvic fossils suggest a possible origin to our social nature? And what do we truly...
The disaster tourist : a novel
Yun, Ko-Å­n
Paper Book
This stunning "dystopian feminist eco-thriller" from an award-winning South Korean author "takes on climate change, sexual assault, greed, and dark tourism" (Ms. Magazine). Welcome to the desert island of Mui, where a paid vacation to paradise is nothing short of a...

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