Jung Young Moon’s Strange Novels Cross Continents
Each time Dallas-based publisher Deep Vellum releases a book by Korean novelist Jung Young Moon, a new batch of readers gain exposure to his vivid, bewildering work.
Korean novelist Jung Young Moon. Courtesy of Deep Vellum Publishing
Each time Dallas-based publisher Deep Vellum releases a book by Korean novelist Jung Young Moon, a new batch of readers gain exposure to his vivid, bewildering work.
Korean novelist Jung Young Moon. Courtesy of Deep Vellum Publishing
Julie Pool
Apr 12, 2021, 8:00 am CST
When Will Evans met the Korean novelist Jung Young Moon in Seoul in 2014 on a trip sponsored by the Literary Translation Institute of Korea, he fell in love with the novelist’s strange and wonderful voice.
Our Favorite International Reads of 2020 (and What We’ll Be Reading in 2021)
Editor
This year, I m keeping my recommendations to the Southern Cone, perhaps out of the wistful recollection that as we face gray, blustery afternoons here in New York, warmer climes hold elsewhere.
Daniel Tunnard s
Escapes(Unnamed Press), set in a world in which competitive Scrabble is a globally televised craze under the thumb of the Scrafia (yes, a Scrabble mafia), is an uproarious novel staked on the final encounter between former world champs Florence Satine and Buenaventura Escobar in Argentina s Tigre Delta. Told from the alternating viewpoints of Satine and Escobar as they seek to flee the Scrafia s long arm, this clever novel reads something like the imagined result had Piglia turned his attentions to competitive board games. Tunnard s book is a satisfying read that takes Alfred Mosher Butt s tame pastime and turns it into a brisk, riveting jaunt across languages, crime scenes, and