INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER * NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER
INDIE NEXT PICK * Debutiful Most Anticipated Book of 2024 * Powell’s Pick of the Month
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.
Review:
Dear Hwang Bo-Reum,
I stumbled upon your book while browsing Amazon and what bookworm would be able to resist the book about a bookshop and the struggles of its owner? I was not able to and it really was a very heartwarming book for me. Do not expect a fast moving adventure here, it is really a character based quiet story about Yeongju managing to make her life take a happier turn both personally and professionally and some other characters in the story doing the same as well. Also, the characters sometimes mention real books, at some point the book club which takes place in the store even discusses the book and quotes the passages from there. I have to admit that quoting the passages from another book was a bit much to me, even if the theme they discussed was very much relevant to one of the main themes of the story.
The book shows the characters dealing with some past traumas, with moving on in their personal lives, with trying to carve out happier professional niches for themselves after suffering a burnout at work in one way or another and that theme very much hit home for me as well.
I have not read a single review of this book before reading it, but I have read the Author’s note at the end and actually this was one of the most relevant author’s notes that I have read, because it really did emphasize for me what she had in mind when drafting this story. She was talking about the characters making small steps in improving their lives and the books really do help at least some of them to do so.
Yeongju seems to grow as a business owner and may even start a new love story after the book will end. But this book is not really a romance, please do not expect one!
“You should be able to guess why I feel this way. Because I was someone who continued to work despite losing myself. It’s a huge regret of mine–not having a healthy work life. I had thought of work as stairs. Stairs to climb to reach the top. Now, I see work as food. Food that you need every day. Food that makes a difference to my body, my heart, my mental health, and my soul. There is food you just shove down your throat, and food that you eat with care and sincerity. I want to be one who takes great care in eating simple food. Not for anyone, but for myself.”
“It was as if a thought that was sprouting had come to full bloom on its own. As if the Minjun of the past and the Minjun of the present had finally come together for the first time in a long while. The Minjun of the past accepted him for who he was, and the Minjun of the present accepted who he had been. Life felt as though it had come full circle.”
Grade: B
