Global writers to engage in conversation at Seoul International Writers’ Festival

Writers from around the world will exchange ideas and share literary works at the Seoul International Writers’ Festival taking place from Sept. 25-Oct. 1 at the Arko Art Center and Daehakro Arts Theater in northeastern Seoul. 　One of the festival’s programs “Free Talks” will pair up writers to engage in conversation about their works and the theme of this year’s festival, “the forgotten and the unforgettable” in literature. The talks will take place at the Daehakro Arts Theater from Sept. 26-30.

Sept. 21, 2016

New book brings Atlas Obscura site’s wonders to printed page

NEW YORK (AP) -- An elf school in Iceland. A hospital for falcons in the Middle East. A museum in Independence, Missouri, for artwork made from hair.These are the types of attractions featured on the Atlas Obscura website, a fan favorite among curiosity-seeking travelers. Now the site is bringing its geeky and magical world of wonders to the printed page. The new “Atlas Obscura” book offers a sampling of 700 of the website’s 10,000 curious attractions, from a pile of rocks in Butte, Montana, tha

Sept. 21, 2016

Lawrence Wright shows the human side of Middle East turmoil in ‘The Terror Years’

“The Terror Years: From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State”By Lawrence WrightKnopf (384 pages, $28.95)“The Terror Years,” Lawrence Wright’s wide-ranging and intensively reported collection of stories on the Middle East in the 9/11 age, begins with a pair of masterful profiles. The first, “The Man Behind Bin Laden,” tracks the upbringing and radicalization of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the current leader of al-Qaida. The second, “The Counterterrorist,” explores the career and death of John P. O’Neill, the FBI

Sept. 7, 2016

Murder lurks deep in the mind

“Hell Fire” By Karin Fossum, translated from the Norwegian by Karl DixonHoughton Mifflin Harcourt (272 pages, $24)With Scandinavian crime fiction all the rage and enormous attention paid to writers like Jo Nesbo, Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell, it’s almost, well, criminal, that Norway’s Karin Fossum isn’t better known.Translated into dozens of languages and winner of the Glass Key Award for best Nordic crime novel, Fossum’s exceptional qualities are on view in her new novel, “Hell Fire,” the

Sept. 7, 2016

How far will you go for your autistic child?

Being a parent is always full of ups and downs, of course, but being the parent of an autistic child, Carolyn Parkhurst writes in her splendid new novel, is a lot like riding a roller coaster that never stops to let you off and catch your breath. Sometimes you marvel at your child’s brilliance. Often, though, you are exhausted by her behavior. You may be prone, like Alexandra Hammond in Parkhurst’s “Harmony,” to compare your growing helplessness to the proliferation of bedbugs in your house.“It’

Sept. 7, 2016

Raised in California and living in Seoul, novelist Krys Lee wrestles with Korean identities

Standing in the heart of Koreatown, novelist Krys Lee turned around.Was this direction to the Korean market where her family made a pilgrimage every weekend and her mother would rent her cache of Korean videotapes? Which way was the tofu restaurant she and her pastor father walked to countless times after her mother died and there was no one to cook him Korean food?And where was her father’s final apartment where he lived, broken, until he suffered a heart attack mid-sermon at the pulpit?The gle

Sept. 7, 2016

Children’s author, illustrator of Llama Llama stories dies

MONTPELIER, Vermont (AP) -- Best-selling children’s book author and illustrator Anna Dewdney, who gained fame with her series of Llama Llama stories, has died at age 50.Dewdney, who had a 15-month battle with brain cancer, died Saturday at her home in Chester, publisher Penguin Young Readers said. “The entire Penguin Young Readers family is heartbroken,” Jen Loja, president of Penguin Young Readers, said in a statement. “And as we grieve, we also celebrate Anna’s life, in dedicating ourselves to

Sept. 7, 2016

'My GoldStar phone' wins Soorim literary award

A novel about a young aspiring writer has won a literary prize co-awarded by Yonhap News Agency and the Soorim Cultural Foundation, the news agency said Monday.“My GoldStar phone” by Kim Hena tells the story of a 25-year-old university research assistant who strives to become a writer after growing up as a rebellious and financially-strapped teenager.“Had the story taken place in the real world, it would have been a series of trivial and humble monologues that drew little attention, but all of a

Sept. 5, 2016

Expressing sorrow of black Americans

“The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race” By Jesmyn WardScribner (240 pages, $25)The murder last year of nine people at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, epitomizes the subject of “The Fire This Time.” These African-American churchgoers, including an 87-year-old woman, were murdered by a white racist simply because they were black.Novelist Jesmyn Ward edited this collection of essays and a few poems, which describes the sorrow and unease of being black in Ameri

Aug. 31, 2016

Jessica Winter's debut looks at the 1 percent

“Break in Case of Emergency” By Jessica WinterKnopf (288 pages, $25.95)Jessica Winter’s debut novel, “Break in Case of Emergency,” is an interesting study of the 1 percent and those striving to join their ranks.A senior features editor at Slate and former culture editor at Time, Winter shines a harsh light on the world of beautiful people and the people who want to be a part of that world.She’s well acquainted with her subject matter as she populates her book with a double dose of beautiful yet

Aug. 31, 2016

Old Hollywood glamour in 'Platinum Doll'

“Platinum Doll” By Anne GirardMIRA Books (352 pages, $15.99)“Madame Picasso” author Anne Girard takes on another bewitching figure from the past in “Platinum Doll,” a charming fictionalized account of how Jean Harlow became a movie star.Stunning blonde Harlean Carpenter McGrew, only 17, moves to California in 1928 with her handsome young husband, Chuck, who’s rich but troubled after the death of his parents. She’s discovered by studio executives while waiting for a starlet girlfriend. She uses t

Aug. 31, 2016

Tom Wolfe talks Darwin, Chomsky and human speech

NEW YORK (AP) -- After satirizing everything from “radical chic” to 20th century architecture, Tom Wolfe is now mining the mystery of language and the reputation of the most influential linguist of our time, Noam Chomsky.Chomsky, in turn, has some thoughts about Wolfe, the celebrated New Journalist and author of such classics as “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and “The Right Stuff.”In his new book, “The Kingdom of Speech,” Wolfe examines how scholars have attempted to discern the roots of verbal c

Aug. 31, 2016

Alex Marwood delivers gripping cautionary tale

“The Darkest Secret”(Penguin Books)By Alex Marwood The disappearance of a child whose body is never found eventually implodes a family as well as a circle of friends. Yet perhaps even more chilling is how this horrid crime appears to have such little effect on the self-centered patriarch in Alex Marwood’s compelling novel. As “The Darkest Secret” poignantly delves into the aftermath of 3-year-old Coco Jackson’s disappearance, Marwood delivers an unexpected story. This isn’t a family forever sty

Aug. 31, 2016

In North Korea, a hard-boiled (and fictional) cop keeps watch

NEW YORK (AP) -- The hero, a police inspector, prowls a city known more for its political malevolence than its street crime. If you read the local newspapers, you could think it’s a city with almost no crime at all. There have been no murders reported there for years, no bank robberies, no muggings, no rapes. The city is Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, which has long hidden so many realities beneath layers of propaganda and isolation. The hero is Inspector O, a policeman who knows those rea

Aug. 29, 2016

Han Kang's award-winning novel hits German market

Han Kang’s novel “The Vegetarian” has received enthusiastic responses from German news media upon being released in the European country, a state-run literary agency said Wednesday.The novel has gotten wide attention from readers in English-speaking countries and Europe since its English translation earned the author the prestigious Man Booker International Award in May. The German-language edition of the Korean novel was released by the Berlin-based publisher Aufbau in the middle of this month

Aug. 25, 2016

Korean literature magazine becomes more inclusive

Launched by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea in 2008, List: Books from Korea originally examined the Korean publishing industry through the eyes of Korean authors, critics, translators and publishers. The magazine has now been revamped and relaunched as Korean Literature Now to better represent its identity as a literary magazine, with the aim of offering a global perspective on Korean literature.The summer issue released on Aug. 19 features international voices, including an interv

Aug. 24, 2016

Making of a ‘liberal icon’ charted

“Bobby Kennedy” By Larry TyeRandom House (608 pages, $32)Unless you were old enough to remember the mid-1960s it might be hard to grasp the considerable impact the Kennedy family, particularly Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the widowed first lady, Jacqueline, had on both the popular imagination and political discourse in the United States -- and, arguably, the world. Everything they did seemed to be news, even if it was just Jackie sporting a miniskirt in public (Fall 1966 and “cautious housewives o

Aug. 24, 2016

Extraordinary characters brought to life

“The Muse” By Jessie BurtonHarper Collins (352 pages, $27.99)“The Muse” asks a lot of its readers, in the best of ways. It asks us to pay close attention, given the unexpected paths that wander variously through time, race, global politics and art history. Odelle Bastien is a Caribbean immigrant in 1967 London, and a typist at an art gallery for the enigmatic Marjorie Quick, who insists on being called only Quick. Why? It’s one of many mysteries that deepen when “Rufina and the Lion,” perhaps a

Aug. 24, 2016