Shin Kyung-sook's "Please Look After Mom" was listed as South Korea's most-read book for the past ten years, a local bookstore said Monday.
The country's biggest Kyobo Book Centre produced the data based on the accumulated sales figure since 2006.
Published in 2008, the book became an instant bestseller with the heartbreaking story of a mother who suffers from Alzheimer's disease and her family who are haunted by her disappearance.
Shin received the "Man Asia Literary Prize" in 2011 as the first Korean author. But her name was tarnished last year as she was accused of plagiarizing a Japanese author, for which she practically admitted to doing so and made an apology.
According to the Kyobo's book sales data, Shin's book is closely followed by "Hector and the Search for Happiness" by Francois Lelord, "1Q84" by Haruki Murakami, "The Miracles of the Namiya General Store" by Keigo Higashino, and "The Big Picture" by Douglas Kennedy.
Only three Korean books are among the ten most-read books, reflecting a reality where Korean readers opt more for foreign books than Korean ones. Two Korean books, Kwon Bi-young's "Princess Deokhye" and Gong Ji-young's "Dogani" ranked a distant eighth and ninth in the list.
Meanwhile, Japanese books fared relatively well compared to Korean books. Murakami's two other books, "Norwegian Wood" and "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki," ranked 16th and 17th, becoming the only author to have three books on the top 20 most-read books list. (Yonhap)
