“Clear, gripping, and suspenseful . . . [Snowy Day’s images] at times convey ineffable emotions, but also hold the frequently inexpressible—or unsafe to express—losses and humiliations of trying to survive under a repressive regime. Lee’s gift for imagery is evident from the very start of the collection . . . Phenomenal . . . Brief, startling moments of illumination are everywhere in its stories; so are all kinds of optical illusions and distortions.” —The Atlantic
“Before Lee Chang-dong became an internationally celebrated director of unflinching, complex films that examine the injustices embedded in Korean society, he explored these same themes in fiction . . . The vivid, realist stories . . . in which class divisions form impassable rifts and submission to the status quo comes at great psychic cost, have much to say about our contemporary reality.” —The New York Times Book Review
“The[se] stories have a suffocating suspense, with no one being allowed to fully move forward with their lives—there’s invariably a knock on the door or a phone ringing to question and rewrite the past. It’s a mark of Lee’s skill that these stories leave you, like the characters, unable to look away while instinctively wanting to escape.” —Finanical Times
“Breathtaking . . . Readers already familiar with Lee’s uncanny ability to create precise yet multilayered film imagery will detect that impressive skill in these pages . . . That recognition, that empathy, should turn aficionados of Lee’s films into literary admirers, deservedly expanding his international presence.” —Shelf Awareness
“A stirring collection of stories about resistance. Lee Chang-dong effectively and dramatically explores the sacrifices people make to hold onto their ideals. These potent tales leave a mark.” —Publishers Weekly
“Short stories exploring South Korea on the verge of transformation. These stories abound with emotional violence that sometimes boils over into the physical, and empathetically explores characters reckoning with a lack of good options. A harrowing but clear-eyed look at South Korea’s recent history.” —Kirkus
“Lee Chang-dong is a masterful auteur—in these remarkable stories as much as in his renowned films. Though this collection pulses ominously with the turbulent ghosts of Korea’s recent history, I was left with an unusual sense of hopefulness. How his characters find their way to redemption still has me in awe. Unforgettable.” —Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Homeland Elegies and McNEAL
“What a gift to have these stories translated, finally, into English! Lee Chang-dong is a master of the inconclusive tale and a brilliant architect of landscapes in which the human figures are hopelessly dwarfed and muzzled by their conditions. Rich with tragic and pathetic ironies, and inflamed by a genuinely incendiary political anger, Lee Chang-dong’s stories give the same complicated pleasure as his films.” —Ari Aster, director of Midsommar and Hereditary
“Lee Chang-dong is a master storyteller of any form. This collection of his early works gives a deep, stark look at human stories from a Korea not too long ago. A gift to read.” —Steven Yeun, Academy Award nominee for Best Actor
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