The late beloved Korean novelist Choi In-ho (1945-2013)’s novel “Another Man’s City” was published in English in the United States this week.

“Another Man’s City” is the author’s last full-length novel written in 2011 before he died in September 2013 at age 68 after a long battle with cancer. The novel centers on protagonist K, who experiences gradual and increasing shifts and changes in everything he believed to be true. 

The scenario of the novel is reminiscent of Peter Weir’s 1998 film “The Truman Show” and Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel “The Unconsoled,” according to the publisher Dalkey Archive Press, which specializes in translating foreign books in the U.S.

“The novel is a symbolic protest against the arrogantly mundane approach of the strain of realism that, cloaked in the guise of humanism, has dominated modern Korean fiction,” said professor Kwon Young-min of the book. “Choi challenges us to consider new possibilities for literature in an age when the divine is largely absent from literary art.”

The 390-page book, translated by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton and published by Dalkey Archive Press, is the 14th book of the Library of Korean Literature series, consisting of 25 works by Korea’s contemporary authors and those who lived through Korea’s colonial and postcolonial periods.

Choi, standing out as one of Korea’s most popular and prolific writers, was born in 1945 in Seoul and graduated from Yonsei University with a degree in English literature. He made his literary debut at age 18 with the short novel “Through the Hole in the Wall,” winning Hankook Ilbo literary awards in 1963.

Since then, he has serially published novels in newspapers and magazines and published a number of novels that were later adapted to films and television dramas, including “Sangdo” and “Heavenly Homecoming to Stars.”

He received the prestigious Yi Sang Literature Prize in 1982 for his novel “Deep Blue Night.” His works have been translated into several languages including English, Japanese, German, Polish and French.

By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)