“The Cabinet is a sly, whimsical satire of life in late-stage capitalism, slippery and surreal… a kind of echoing chamber in which the comic, heartbreaking and terrifying bounce against, amplify and distort one another.”
– Amar El-Mohtar , The New York Times
“[A] brilliant mosaic novel…These stories straddle the lines between science fiction, fantasy, fairy tale, and acute reality.”
– Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“Deftly translated by award-winning Halbert, Kim’s latest import…again showcases his sly, surreal, dark humor about all the ways humans are, well, not particularly human.”
– Booklist
“What begins as a rather whimsical set of stories turns into a much darker novel, raising issues of difference and acceptance, what people must do to survive, and what is truly monstrous.”
– the Guardian
“Surprising and enchanting”
– The Washington Post
“Un-su Kim is a tremendous writer.”
– Scott Smith, author of A Simple Plan
“This charming and fantastical book is sure to introduce Kim to a whole new legion of weird fiction fans, ideal for readers of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian and the works of Haruki Murakami.”
– Chicago Review of Books
“The Cabinet is an anti-capitalist narrative at its core, one that makes explicit the arbitrariness of capitalist expectations and assumptions. Kim deftly juggles both macro-level and micro-level ideas about social roles, purpose, and personal narrative. More of a thought experiment than a thriller, The Cabinet is a lighthearted, amusing read that nonetheless dives into some deep philosophical topics.”
– Strange Horizons
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