Short & Satisfying Book Club: "Hunger" by Choi Jin-Young

The Short and Satisfying Book Club led by Georgia Court is for those looking for a shorter read that is ripe for discussion. November's selection is Hunger by Choi Jin-young, translated from the Korean by Soje. A cult sensation in South Korea, this visceral, unsettling novella begins when a woman finds her lover dead and makes an extraordinary decision about what to do with his body. Told through the voices of the living and the dead, Hunger is a strange and fiercely intimate exploration of love, grief, capitalism, and what it means to consume (and be consumed by) another person.

We will meet in person at our store location at The Mark, 117 S. Pineapple Ave. The book club is $18 which includes a copy of Hunger to be picked up at Bookstore1 any time before our meeting.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

On an ordinary afternoon, a woman sees her partner murdered in the street. Time freezes. She lifts his body from the pavement, cradles him home, disinfects each inch of skin—and sits down to begin.

As he witnesses his own funeral from beyond, their two voices—living and dead—lament a lifetime of bone-grinding labor in a society that devours everyone whole. But the woman is no longer willing to bow before law, God, or money. In an act of love and rebellion, she transforms his body into her own, entombing him within her flesh so that he may live again.

Raw, furious, and unflinchingly intimate, Hunger is the Korean underground phenomenon that indicts capitalism, mourns lost love, and pushes the boundaries of what the body can endure for justice and survival. A psychologically and philosophically thrilling novel, it cuts to the core of how we are consumed by the world—and how we might consume it back.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Choi Jin-young is one of South Korea’s best-known authors. Her career started in 2006 when she won the Silcheon Literature Debut Author Award. She has since won many more, including the Shin Dong-yup Literary Prize, Manhae Literary Prize and, most recently, the Yi Sang Literary Award.