Cursed Bunny: Shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize

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Rising Korean author Bora Chung draws on a variety of influences here, her extensive background in Russian and Polish literature, her commitment to political activism as well as her fascination with fairytales and the fantastic. The Frozen Finger (차가운 손가락) is a rather surreal ghost story, and Snare (덫) a genuinely creepy folk-tale type of story about a man who finds a fox, caught in a snare, that bleeds gold. These are stories about survival that reveal the evils of survival at the expense of another person and often lead to vicious consequences. Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here. There’s a fascination too with the grotesque and animalistic but nothing that any regular consumer of horror fiction’s likely to find especially shocking or disturbing.

Each entry in this collection is a fully realized story unto itself, showing Chung’s mastery of the form as her work shocks and horrifies and lodges viscerally in one’s memory.

The story is also noticeable for a reference to the uncanny valley concept - one that neatly summarises the collection. I only want so little,” said the Head hastily, “I’m only asking that you keep dumping your body waste in the toilet so I can finish the rest of my body.

He takes it home and uses it to build his wealth, but when the fox dies and his twins are born, his Midas-like obsession takes a sinister and disturbing turn, cursed perhaps by the fox. Truth be told, I am not very surprised it was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize last year. I can't bring myself to give it 1 star, because I did like the last story and I can see what Chung was trying to do with this, it just really didn't work for me. It is also great to see the translators named on the front cover, and the Korean title and author’s name, written in 한글 (hangeul) on the flaps. Both these stories while confronting were unique and asked some interesting questions about a woman's place in a patriarchal society.Some stories have elements of fantasy others of SF, historical fiction, feminist literature but all share a horror flavour and are very well written (and translated). Although the exceptional exists in that universe, along with some ludicrous stories and others that are more prosaic — but the lyrical writing and knack for vivid and surreal imagery would not take the enjoyment of reading this bizarre book. The lamp, once gifted to the CEO, creates chaos in the life of the CEO’s family and his business, but also with implications for the grandfather. Tower, translated by Sang Ryu from the original 타워 by 배명훈 (Bae Myung-hoon) - my review: https://www.

It is published by Honford Star whose mission is to publish the best literature from East Asia, be it classic or contemporary . If the aesthetics of the book are the only thing of quality, think again; Cursed Bunny, is without any doubt, THE best short story collection I have read in a long time. She currently teaches Russian language and literature and science fiction studies at Yonsei University and translates modern literary works from Russian and Polish into Korean. I am not going to lie to you: there are unsettling, creepy and even sickening things, scenes, characters and events in Bora Chung's stories but the book is so absorbing that, to my amazement, I did not mind them most of the time.

It was probably more accurate to refer to it as “a thing that vaguely looks like a head” than an actual head. A few of my GR friends raved about it and it prompted me to read a sample story I found on the internet. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. If you do not like spicy food, you usually do not go to a Mexican restaurant and then complain that the food was piquant there.