The Korea Herald

‘Love will always win,’ says Syrian artist whose graphic novel tells of war’s hell

Apr 20, 2016

PARIS (AFP) - Two nights after the Paris attacks in November, a young couple stripped to their waists and kissed in the rain on the Place de la Republique as crowds gathered to grieve and share their shock at the killings.　She was French and he Syrian, and the photo of them holding a handwritten placard saying “Love will always win” went viral.　“I knew it was bad when my friends began calling me from Syria asking if I was OK,” said artist Hamid Sulaiman, of the jihadist attacks in which 130 peop
An intricate novella of the mundane, the otherwordly

Apr 20, 2016

“Springtime: A Ghost Story” 　By Michelle de Kretser　Catapult (85 pages, $11.95)　Disturbing ripples run through this novella from an award-winning Sri Lankan author who grew up in Australia. We join the life of lead character Frances as she moves to modern-day Sydney to pursue her studies of elements of composition in 18th-century art. She’s a keen observer of details, researching the significance not only of what’s in a painting, but what’s not.　Her story is both simple and intricate. Our first
Understated novel observes family dynamics

Apr 20, 2016

“Miller’s Valley” 　By Anna Quindlen　Random House (257 pages, $28)　When society’s volume seems cranked to 11, there’s something to be said about a quiet book. Understated almost to a fault, Anna Quindlen’s eighth novel pulls together themes of rural life, Vietnam, mental illness, eminent domain, abortion and ambition in prose that never shouts, yet still explores a family’s depths. 　We meet Mimi Miller as a child growing up in Miller Valley, the family history flowing across the land as surely as
Novelist Han Kang shortlisted for Man Booker Prize

Apr 14, 2016

Writer says nomination will be “source of strength” in writing
New book offers comprehensive study of Dokdo sovereignty

Apr 13, 2016

The territorial dispute between Korea and Japan over Dokdo Islets in the East Sea, dates back to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, explains Park Hyun-jin in his new book, “A Study of Dokdo Sovereignty,” which is by Kyungin Publishing and cost 59,000 won.　Although records show that Korea obtained the original right to the Dokdo Islets during the Silla Kingdom period (57 BC-935 AD), Japan has been attempting to claim sovereignty over the Dokdo Islets after using it as a naval base during the war aga
[New Books] Pervading sense of passivity dominates ‘The Hole’

Apr 13, 2016

　“The Hole” By Pyun Hye-young Moonji Publishing (210 pages, 13,000 won, $11)　　After a devastating car accident, 40-something university professor Oh-gi wakes up to find his wife dead and his own body completely paralyzed in a hospital bed, capable of no other movement than blinking. 　His whole existence seems to have collapsed and disappeared into nothing, he says in a monologue. He is recognizable to himself only through a nametag that a nurse placed at the foot of his bed. 　“The Hole,” the f
[New Books] Veteran TV reporter releases coverage of his own life

Apr 13, 2016

“And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East” 　By Richard Engel　Simon & Schuster (241 pages, $27)　In his 20 years of reporting from some of the most volatile hot spots in the Middle East, Richard Engel has survived bombings and uprisings, been kidnapped and spent many nights sleeping on the floor, a mattress shoved against the window in case of an explosion.　Engel’s accounting of his two-decade rise from young freelancer to NBC’s chief foreign correspondent is often as exhausti
[New Books] Essays on the endings of well-known writers

Apr 13, 2016

“Final Chapters: How Famous Authors Died”　By Jim Bernhard　Skyhorse Publishing (296 pages, $14.99 paperback)　A person’s life is always more important than his or her death -- but no one reads an obituary or biography without wanting to know how the subject died. British-educated Texas writer Jim Bernhard gives a respectful nod to the understandable fascination most of us have with death in this collection of essays about the ends authors have come to.　To his credit, he includes in each essay some
Michael Mann inks three-book deal with William Morrow

Apr 13, 2016

NEW YORK (AP) -- A book project founded by director-writer Michael Mann has found a home with HarperCollins Publishers.　The Harper imprint William Morrow told the Associated Press on Tuesday that it had acquired three novels to be released through Michael Mann books. The novels, all coauthored by Mann and currently untitled, will include a collaboration with “The Cartel” author Don Winslow on a story based on the lives of crime bosses Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana and a prequel to Mann’s origina
Padma Lakshmi reveals much more than ‘Top Chef’ in new memoir

Apr 13, 2016

If you ever happen to interview Padma Lakshmi, do yourself a favor and let her pick the location. That way, you might just find yourself enjoying a piping hot plate of spicy orecchiette at an unassuming East Village trattoria while the former model converses in fluent Italian with the restaurant’s owner.　To anyone who’s watched “Top Chef,” the popular Bravo competition series that has introduced a generation of American TV viewers to phrases like sous-vide and mise en place, it should come as no
France bewitched by ‘Bojangles,’ a book full of joy and tears

Apr 12, 2016

PARIS (AFP) -- It is the literary sensation of the year in France. A first novel by a dyslexic author that has had readers crying -- and laughing out loud -- on the Paris metro.　Before he wrote “Waiting for Bojangles” in seven weeks at his parents' home, 35-year-old Olivier Bourdeaut had “failed at just about everything else in my life,” he told AFP.　“I wish I was joking,” said the failed estate agent whose last job was a switchboard operator for an educational publishing company, “surrounded by
Ta-Nehisi Coates wins PEN award

Apr 12, 2016

NEW YORK (AP) -- National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates has received another honor, an essay award from PEN.　Coates' “Between the World and Me” is an open letter to his son about race and police violence. It’s the winner of the $10,000 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. It won the National Book Award last fall.　Mia Alvar has won a PEN prize for best debut fiction. 　Alvar received the $20,000 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for “In the Country,” a story collection about F
Holy Bible on list of 'challenged' books at libraries

Apr 12, 2016

NEW YORK (AP) -- On the latest list of books most objected to at public schools and libraries, one title has been targeted nationwide, at times for the sex and violence it contains, but mostly for the legal issues it raises.　The Bible　"You have people who feel that if a school library buys a copy of the Bible, it's a violation of church and state," says James LaRue, who directs the Office for Intellectual Freedom for the American Library Association, which released its annual 10 top snapshot of
Spain in Our Hearts’ tells the American story of the Spanish civil war

Apr 6, 2016

“Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939”　By Adam Hochschild　Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (464 pages, $30)　The Spanish civil war, which ran from 1936 to 1939, is most notable to historians for how it foreshadowed the horrors of World War II.　Yet few distant conflicts are so burned into our culture and consciousness.　Ernest Hemingway, who covered the war, made it the setting of “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “the best goddamn book” he ever wrote. George Orwell, who fought in i
What’s on the ‘manuscript wishlist’ of literary agents?

Apr 6, 2016

The other day, a friend sent me a link to something called “manuscript wishlist” -- a Twitter thread (#MSWL) from literary agents who are looking for that next best-selling blockbuster manuscript by an unknown writer. (Also online at mswishlist.com)　It’s fascinating to troll the posts and see what they’re hoping to find. (And poets, I’m sorry, but you can all stop reading right now. They’re not looking for poetry.)　One agent wrote: “I’d really love a hot contemporary romance about women (and men