Kim Jee Hye, who runs an independent bookstore in Korea, makes her authorial debut with the soothing Soyangri Book Kitchen, where strangers arrive unsettled and leave with bodies and souls nourished and restored. Singaporean polyglot Shanna Tan, fast becoming the translator for K-healing titles, provides another warm rendering.
Seoul businesswoman Yoojin never imagined that, at 32, she'd be running the Soyangri Book Kitchen, a bookshop, café/event space, guesthouse complex, so far from the city. Feeling burned out, she'd ventured to rural Soyangri to watch a mountain sunrise, overheard two men in a waffle restaurant discussing an abandoned piece of land, and impulsively bought the property. Ten months later, Yoojin, having gathered an already devoted staff, is ready for opening: "May you find encouragement and comfort in our kitchen of books," their sign persuades. The Kitchen is blessed with build-and-they-will-come success when its inaugural visitor serendipitously turns out to be the previous landowner's granddaughter, an exhausted famous singer longing for her beloved late grandmother. A high-powered lawyer confronting a serious medical issue is their first month-long "bookstay" guest. Two childhood soul mates reunite. A young man mourning his late mother confronts his fear for his "sharp businessman" father.
In her author's note, Kim reveals her own quitting and resetting, her craving for kinship, her reclaiming "the happy memories of [her] life." In writing the kind of reassuring novel she wishes she had in her 30s, Kim invites readers to imagine the panoramic views and delectable meals, appreciate inspiring conversations, and make nurturing connections--all while reveling in the transformative enlightenments revealed in Yoojin's thoughtfully curated books. --Terry Hong