The Cabinet

(Paperback, New edition)

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Description

Winner of the Munhakdongne Novel Award, South Korea's most prestigious literary prize. Cabinet 13 looks exactly like any normal filing cabinet...Except this cabinet is filled with files on the 'symptomers', humans whose strange abilities and bizarre experiences might just mark the emergence of a new species. But to Mr Kong, the harried office worker whose job it is to look after the cabinet, the symptomers are a headache; especially the one who won't stop calling every day, asking to be turned into a cat. A richly funny and fantastical novel about the strangeness at the heart of even the most everyday lives, from one of South Korea's most acclaimed novelists. Translated by Sean Lin Halbert File Under-Fiction 12,000 Cans of Beer | Memory Mosaicers| Will Execution Inc. | Monkey of All Bombs

Reviews

"[A] brilliant mosaic novel...These stories straddle the lines between science fiction, fantasy, fairy tale, and acute reality."
"Un-su Kim is a tremendous writer"
"Showcases his sly, surreal, dark humor about all the ways humans are, well, notparticularly human."
"This charming and fantastical book is sure to introduce Kim to a whole new legion of weird fiction fans, ideal for readers of Han KangsThe Vegetarianand the works of Haruki Murakami."
"Kim deftly juggles both macro-level and micro-level ideas about social roles, purpose, and personal narrative."
"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."
"Surprising and enchanting"
"comic, heartbreaking and terrifying."

Author Bio

Un-Su Kim made his debut as a writer in 2002 through the Jinju News Fall Literary Contest with short stories, Easy Breezy Writing Class and Dan Valjean Street and the 2003 DongA Ilbo Spring Literary Contest with his mid-length novel Farewell, Friday. His first full-length novel The Cabinet received the 12th Munhakdongne Novel Award.