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

“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

“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

“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

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

“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

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

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

Korean Literature Now features contributions by international literary figures

“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

“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

“The Last Days of New Paris” By China MievilleDel Rey (205 pages, $25)Page for page, there is no one generating more utterly unfamiliar ideas than author China Mieville (“Perdido Street Station,” “The City and the City”) -- and the glossary of monsters in his latest novel, “The Last Days of New Paris,” could support a full book for every entry. There’s so much absurd beauty among the fauna in this story of surrealist art come to life in Nazi-occupied France, in fact, that the author’s subtler po

NEW YORK (AP) -- For viewers who rejoice in TV’s artistic upsurge, one virtuoso perhaps more than anyone can be credited for elevating the medium from its bygone “boob tube” status.Steven Bochco flinches at the mention of his half-century writing and producing TV. Could it really be that long? But his list of credits documents his legacy. Consider: the breakthrough hits “L.A. Law” and “NYPD Blue,” the pioneering half-hour dramedy “Doogie Howser, MD” and the groundbreaking legal drama “Murder One