Snowy Day and Other Stories

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The first story collection published in English by Lee Chang-dong, one of South Korea’s most celebrated and influential literary and cinematic figures Much like Lee Chang-dong’s internationally renowned films ( Burning , Secret Sunshine , and Poetry ), these brilliant, unsettling tales, originally published in Korea in the 1980s and now translated into English for the first time, investigate themes of injustice, betrayal, and terror—on both an intimate and national scale. Lee writes deeply and hauntingly about conflicts between family, the powerful and the vulnerable, conformists and rebels. In the title story, drawn from the author’s own memories of serving in the South Korean military, the class divide between a university-educated private and a working-class corporal serving sentry duty together one snowy night leads to tragic consequences. In “There’s a Lot of Shit in Nokcheon,” the psychological