Hwang Sun-won (1915-2000) is one of modern Korea's masters of narrative prose. Trees on a Slope (1960) is his most accomplished novel--one of the few Korean novels to describe in detail the physical and psychological horrors of the Korean War. It is an assured, forceful depiction of three young soldiers in the South Korean army during the latter stages of the war: Hyŏnt'ae, the arrogant and overconfident squad leader; the stolid and dependable Yun-gu; and the Poet Tong-ho. The war affects the men in different ways. Before he can return home, Tong-ho takes his own life after shooting...

Modern Korean fiction is to a large extent a literature of witness to the historic upheavals of twentieth-century Korea. Often inspired by their own experiences, contemporary writers continue to show us how individual Koreans have been traumatized by wartime violence--whether the uprooting of whole families from the ancestral home, life on the road as war refugees, or the violent deaths of loved ones.

The Red Room brings together stories by three canonical Korean writers who examine trauma as a simple fact of life. In Pak Wan-so's In the Realm of the Buddha, trauma manifests itself...

Modern Korean fiction is to a large extent a literature of witness to the historic upheavals of twentieth-century Korea. Often inspired by their own experiences, contemporary writers continue to show us how individual Koreans have been traumatized by wartime violence--whether the uprooting of whole families from the ancestral home, life on the road as war refugees, or the violent deaths of loved ones.

The Red Room brings together stories by three canonical Korean writers who examine trauma as a simple fact of life. In Pak Wan-so's In the Realm of the Buddha, trauma manifests itself...