Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum | book review
Gentle Korean bestseller about finding your own path and being kind in the warmth of a bookshop
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop started my streak of ‘woman quits job to open bookshop’ books, and if that’s not a new bestselling genre, I don’t know what is.
Yeongju, having done everything right in life—good school, solid job, decent husband—now knows that everything is wrong and even though she doesn’t know how to make it right, she must do something.
That something is opening a bookshop in Seoul, Korea, and her head is in such a cloud that she can only live one day at a time. Yet, she holds true to her values. She insists on paying Minjun a living wage. She gives herself time to heal. She cries in depair, pulls herself together, breaks down again, and keeps going. On, and on, until one day, she doesn’t cry. There is no epiphany, nothing has been fixed. She just doesn’t feel quite as fragile.
It reminds me of the times I have been most desolate, when what I had lived for had been taken away but life itself was there, giving me no choice but to keep going. When I did not know what came next or how to get there, only that I had to keep going, do something even though I did not know what, like the Child in I Who Have Never Known Men, who pushes on to survive even though she hopes for nothing.
This is not a self-help book and no one is the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop is a motivational speaker. But it is quietly comforting, steadily buoying you to the surface with its gentle words and story.
Is there a book that’ll unclog a smothered heart?
Another character who stands out is Minjun. Unlike Yeongju, he never reached conventional success past school. In fact, through a beautiful extended metaphor of steadfastly making buttons only to find there are no buttonholes, he shows us how society has let him down. Where he upheld his end of the bargain, society broke its own contract.
There were no holes in the first place. Imagine a shirt lined with expensive and beautiful buttons on one side. But there are no holes. Why? Because nobody cut them open for us. What a ridiculous sight—a shirt with only the first button fastened and a row of dangling buttons.
I have often felt this way too, that I am meticulously making buttons for no reason. What do we do when we find out our beautiful buttons are not needed?
And so, Minjun finds himself working part-time as a barista at Yeongju’s bookshop, where he is also slowly healed and rediscovers enthusiasm for life through coffee.
We meet other charming characters to fall in love with, like in Days In the Morisaki Bookshop. We meet the mother who is disconnected from her teenage son and doesn’t know how to help him other than forcing him to the bookshop after school; we meet the son himself, who despite his initial reluctance soon becomes a fixed feature at the bookshop. We meet Sungchul, Minjun’s friend who is enamoured by films. We even meet Yeongju’s ex-husband as they try to forgive each other.
This book is slow and gentle, but it is also powerful. In the context of a conservative Asian society where divorce is still taboo and you certainly don’t quit your good job, Yeongju firmly stands true to what she knows to be best for herself, while being honest about the pain that comes with it. She suffers but does not regret her decisions—instead, she chooses her own happiness and the form that it takes, even when it breaks convention, and is rewarded for her quiet bravery.
Book information
Title: Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop
Author: Hwang Bo-reum
Translator: Shanna Tan
Published: 2022; 2024 in English
Length: 307 pages
Book description
The Korean smash hit available for the first time in English, a slice-of-life novel for readers of Matt Haig's The Midnight Library and Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of AJ Fikry.
Yeongju is burned out. She did everything she was supposed to: go to school, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. In a leap of faith, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop. In a quaint neighborhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and her customers take refuge. From the lonely barista to the unhappily married coffee roaster-and the writer who sees something special in Yeongju-they all have disappointments in their past. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop becomes the place where they all learn how to truly live.
A heartwarming story about finding acceptance in your life and the healing power of books, Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop is a gentle reminder that it's never too late to scrap the plot and start again.
leaving everything behind and opening a bookstore? sign me up
This book sounds fabulous. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll look for it!