Who doesn’t want to quit their tiresome and unrewarding job to fulfill a lifelong dream? This is the premise Hwang Bo-reum plays with in her first novel Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop, which will be released on Feb. 20, 2024 (hyu is pronounced “hyoo” and means “rest”). The question may sound like a major spoiler, but it is just the beginning as the bookshop becomes the refuge for a handful of main and supporting characters on different life journeys. Through friendship and the healing presence bookstores often have (as any bibliophile would tell you), the characters are encouraged to take the time to look within themselves and figure out who they are and what it is they want from their life.
Though Yeongju is the thirty-something bookshop owner and protagonist, she is the framework that allows these characters to become acquainted with each other. Some of these people are rather young. There is Minjun, her full-time barista, who, after having worked so hard all his life to be an excellent student, finds that these are not enough qualifications for him to find a job. Dispirited after taking many interview coaching classes and continually failing, he decides to quit looking for stable work and do part-time work instead, even at the risk of shaming his parents after all they had invested in him. The question he struggles with has to do with figuring out his new purpose in life and the insecurities he feels about other people’s expectations.
This situation is not so different from another young character, Mincheol, a high school student who has lost all interest in life. Concerned, Heejoo, his mother (who is one of the shop’s book club leaders), gives him writing assignments and makes him visit the bookshop weekly to get reading assignments from Youngjo. The question he struggles with involves whether he should pursue something he is interested in or something he is good at, and which of the two would make him happy.
Mid-level workers are also represented in this social circle. Consumed by anger after years of mistreatment from her employers, Jungsuh quit her job, and to keep the negative thoughts at bay, she knits at the bookshop. In contrast, Seungwoo is a programmer who attaines his dream career, but work exhaustion sucked the joy out of it, leading him to eventually transfer to another department where the work does not fulfill him but allows him to have time for hobbies, such as his interest in the Korean language and writing.
Last, but not least, there is Jimi, a long-time business owner of Goat Beans, a local coffee roastery that supplies the beans for Youngju’s shop. Though Jimi runs her business successfully, she has an unhappy marriage that distracts her and often disrupts her work routine. She and Youngju often meet up at Youngju’s apartment after work to gossip, vent, munch on snacks and drink beer. She is 10 years older than Youngju.
In the Author’s Note, Hwang writes, “While I didn’t plan out the plot before starting to write, I knew the atmosphere I wanted to create…A space we can escape to, a refuge from the intensity of daily life where we can’t even pause to take a break…A day where we grow, and from growth sprouts hope. A day spent having meaningful conversations with good people. Most importantly, a day where we feel good, and our heart beats strongly.” With the book’s emphasis on friendships and support for loved ones, readers will undoubtedly find the book a safe and cozy space to go to when they want a break. At times philosophical, heartbreaking and bittersweet, readers will want to find out whether the characters found any resolution to their questions.
There is no denying readers will resonate with the modern-day struggles depicted in these characters as the pandemic seems to have ignited a renewed interest in work-life balance and quality of life. Though the book has been compared to Matt Haig’s “The Midnight Library” and Gabrielle Zevin’s “The Storied Life of AJ Fikry,” I find these to be inaccurate. Instead, the book reminds me more of “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. If books like that pique your interest, this is the right book for you.
