20 Fascinating Korean Books Coming Out in the Second Half of 2025!

Left: Cover of Blowfish (Credit: Astra Publishing House)

“In a near future where women are an endangered minority, two young friends try to break free from a facility designed for those few who can still give birth. Every year in a secluded seaside village, a maiden is sacrificed to a divine sea serpent. Elsewhere, the last female shaman of an indigenous tribe tells her stories to a visiting research team. And in South Korea’s Alps Grand Park, the residents exist in an exclusive world dominated by giant air purifier towers as others are left to live in the shade.

The women in these stories find themselves trapped – by circumstance, society or tradition – as they fight for a means of escape. This sweeping and subversive collection celebrates their strength and their courage, their desire for independence and self-expression.”
— Google Books

Left: Cover of Roadkill (Credit: Vintage Publishing)

“Set against the backdrop of Japanese-occupied Korea, Capitalists Must Starve follows a sharp-tongued, big-hearted heroine who dares to love, rebel, and carve out space for working-class women in a world determined to silence them. Echoing the unflinching narratives of Alias Grace and the sweeping historical vision of Pachinko, this feminist historical novel balances raw grit with unexpected tenderness and a defiant streak of dark humour.

A stirring portrait of resistance from below: fierce, funny, and full of fight.”
— Google Books

Left: Cover of Capitalists Must Starve (Credit: Tilted Axis Press)

“An Yiji’s career had been stalling for some time when a representative of the illustrious Robert Foundation offers her a spot on their all-expenses-paid artist residency in California. The residency has launched many famous artists’ careers, so she knows she can’t waste this opportunity. Still, she feels reluctant to accept, and with good reason: the foundation’s patron is a small dog named Robert, known for both his talent as a photographer, but also his arrogance. Moreover, the offer comes with a condition: on the last day of the residency, one of An’s paintings must be incinerated, and Robert gets to select which one.

When An reaches California, she finds the state ablaze with wildfires, but at the Foundation all is calm. She navigates awkward dinners with Robert, tries to find inspiration while being bombarded with sponsors who all want their business to be the subject of her art, and despairs at the prospect of her work being set on fire. Was coming to California a huge mistake?”
— Google Books

Left: Cover of Art on Fire (Credit: Scribe Publications)

“Jebi is tired of noisy, crowded Seoul and her dull job at a photography studio in the city. When she sees a billboard on her commute showing beautiful Jeju Island, she decides to quit her job and spend a summer there. On the last day of her trip, when she’s due to fly back to her real life, she loses everything: phone, credit cards, plane ticket. Wandering through a fishing village, she stumbles across a tiny photo studio.

Staying to work there, she meets and photographs a young couple who are about to get married, an elderly ex-cop haunted by questions from his past, and the Jeju haenyeos, a group of local women freedivers who gather sea urchins. The photos Jebi takes capture the magic of the island and its people.”
— Google Books

Left: Cover of Hakuda Photo Studio (Credit: John Murray Press)

“In a peaceful village in the countryside, far from the bustling heart of Seoul, lies a book lovers’ paradise. With its wafts of delicious food and book-filled shelves, Soyangri Book Kitchen is dotingly managed by its plucky proprietor Yoojin. Her aim? To create a sanctuary for weary souls like herself.

But the book kitchen is more than just a place to eat or read – it’s a place which offers its guests a true escape, not just inside the pages of its many books, but in the warm embrace of an overnight bookstay.

Over the course of a year, seven individuals, all at a crossroads in their lives, find their way to Yoojin’s book kitchen. Among them are Da-in, a singer grappling with an identity crisis, Sohee, a promising lawyer confronted with a daunting medical diagnosis, and Soohyuk, a young musical director whose dreams have been stifled by failure.

As they arrive in Soyangri, each of them will find their life subtly transformed by the magic of its books and the kindness of its people.”
— Google Books

Left: Cover of Soyangri Book Kitchen (Credit: Vintage Publishing)

“Hidden down a quiet alley, glowing softly under moonlight, there is a bar like no other. This otherworldly venue is manned by Mun, a quiet bartender with a knowing gaze and a mysterious past. He serves not just drinks, but moments. Hand-crafted cocktails that shimmer with stardust and emotion; each one a reflection of your own life: your hidden dreams and your forgotten joys.

Long ago, Mun was the guardian at a magical library where every book held the story of a person’s life story. Due to his beliefs that those stories belonged not on dusty shelves but in people’s hearts, Mun was cast out and shunned. He found hope in the most unexpected person – Bo-reum, a magical Moon Rabbit who gave him an enchanted recipe that could turn memories into magic. Now, in every glass he serves, there is a chance to remember, to understand and to heal.

Sit down and feel your story unfold.
Sometimes, the smallest sip can change everything.”
— Google Books

Left: Cover of The Moon Glow Bookshop (Credit: Headline Publishing Group)

“When twenty-seven-year-old Yeon-hwa loses her grandmother, the proprietor of Hwawoldang, she honours her final wish: to keep the shop open for one more month, between 10pm and midnight. Yeon-hwa hopes to learn the secrets behind Hwawoldang’s desserts, and the enigmatic woman who made them. But when one of the shop’s most loyal patrons arrives, Yeon-hwa quickly discovers Hwawoldang is no ordinary pastry shop, as its customers are not entirely alive…

With each new visitor, Yeon-hwa is drawn deep into their memories. The true calling of the pastry shop is to shepherd her customers into the afterlife, but can Yeon-hwa continue her grandmother’s legacy? And will the task bring her closer to the woman she barely knew?

Evocative, nourishing and cosy, A Midnight Pastry Shop Called Hwawoldang is an ode to lost souls finding home, in this life and beyond.”
— Google Books

Left: Cover of A Midnight Pastry Shop Called Hwawoldang (Credit: Penguin Random House)

“Jae-Young has just left everything she’s ever known, not that it was much: her thankless job, her infested apartment, and her abusive boyfriend—who happens to be dead on the kitchen floor. Murder was never the way she envisioned leaving, but times were desperate. Now on a train to the bustling city of Seoul, Jae-Young is hoping to escape her transgressions and just become invisible—safe.

On the train, she meets a chatty mother fleeing with her infant son from an unfaithful husband and hoping to find refuge with the in-laws she’s never met. To avoid further conversation, Jae-Young excuses herself for a moment. When she returns, the woman is nowhere to be found. But her crying child remains with a note, pleading with Jae-Young to take him to his father’s family in a remote province far from Seoul. It’s not an ideal pit stop, but for the sake of the child, she can’t ignore the request.

When Jae-Young arrives, the house takes her by surprise. It’s a gated manor oozing with opulence and the finest luxuries—the kind of place she could only dream of setting foot in. What’s more, the family assumes Jae-Young is their daughter-in-law and invites her to stay. She imagines an easy life in their care, free of worry and fear. And Jae-Young realizes: There’s nothing more invisible than becoming someone else.

But both women have ghosts in their pasts. Though unaware of the rot lurking beneath the shiny veneer of her new life, Jae-Young will do whatever it takes to make sure she never goes back.”
— Google Books

Left: Cover of A Twist of Fate (Credit: Random House)

“When four isolated elderly people die back-to-back at the same hospital by jumping out of the sixth-floor window, Su-Yeon doesn’t understand why she’s the only one at her precinct that seems to care. But her colleagues at the police force dismiss the case as a series of unfortunate suicides due to the patients’ loneliness. But Su-Yeon doesn’t have the privilege of looking away: her dearest friend, Grandma Eun-Shim, lives on the sixth floor, and Su-Yeon is terrified that something will happen to her next.

As Su-Yeon begins her investigation alone, she runs into a mysterious woman named Violette at the crime scene. Violette claims to be a vampire hunter, searching for her ex-lover, Lily, and is insistent that a vampire is behind the mysterious deaths. Su-Yeon is skeptical at first, but when a fifth victim jumps from the window, her investigation reveals the body was completely drained of blood. Desperate to discover the cause of the deaths, Su-Yeon considers Violette’s explanation-that something supernatural is involved.

The Midnight Shift is a gripping mystery, overflowing with commentary about societal isolation and loneliness, the sharp knife of grief, and the effects of marginalization, perfect for readers of Cursed Bunny; Woman, Eating; and A Certain Hunger.”
— Google Books

Cheon Seon-ran is the author of the poignant, remarkable A Thousand Blues, which came out earlier this year.

Left: Cover of The Midnight Shift (Credit: Bloomsbury Publishing)

“Eight unsuspecting people receive an invitation to participate in a mysterious new reality show called Break Room. But what starts as an opportunity for fame is quickly revealed to be something far more unsettling when they learn how they were chosen – voted in by their own co-workers as the people they’d least like to share a break room with.

But there’s another twist. Among them is an imposter – a mole planted by the show’s producers. The only way to win the prize money is to uncover the saboteur before time runs out.

Labelled as “villains”, the participants are left to grapple with the alarming realisation that their actions might be perceived differently by others. As alliances shift and paranoia festers, the contestants begin to realise that the true challenge isn’t surviving the show – it’s facing their own selves.

Welcome… Step into the world of the reality show, Break Room, where every smile hides suspicion, and every word could be a clue.”
— Google Books

If you recognise the author’s name, you’re not alone! Miye Lee wrote the adorable Dallergut Dream Department Store duology too!

Left: Cover of Break Room (Credit: Headline Publishing Group)

“When North Korean spymaster Doha Kim is mysteriously killed in Oxford, his protégé, Yohan Kim, chases the only breadcrumb given to him in Doha’s last breath: “Soju Club, Dr. Ryu.” In the meantime, a Korean American CIA agent , Yunah Choi, races to salvage her investigation of the North Korean spy cell in the aftermath of the assassination. At the centre of it all is the Soju Club, the only Korean restaurant in Oxford, owned by Jihoon Lim, an immigrant from Seoul in search of a new life after suffering a tragedy. As different factions move in with their own agendas, their fates become entangled, resulting in a bitter struggle that will determine whose truth will triumph.

Oxford Soju Club weaves a tale of how immigrants in the Korean diaspora are forced to create identities to survive, and how in the end, they must shed those masks and seek their true selves.”
— Google Books

Left: Cover of Oxford Soju Club (Credit: Dundurn Press)

“In a labyrinthine research facility, where those who open the wrong door might find it’s disappeared behind them or that the echoing footsteps they’re running from are their own, an unnamed protagonist begins their night shift under the watchful eye of the building’s enigmatic senior guard.

Each evening, as the fluorescent lights hum and the silence grows heavier, the guard shares another tale of cursed objects and lives unspooled by vengeance, sorrow or revelation. But these are not mere ghost stories. They’re warnings. Lessons. Or, perhaps, confessions…

As the nights stretch on and reality frays, our protagonist starts to suspect that the building itself is alive with malevolent intent and that the objects they guard aren’t just cursed. They’re waiting. Watching.

Equal parts bone-chilling, wryly funny and deeply political, The Midnight Timetable is a masterful work of literary horror from one of our time’s greatest imaginations.”
— Google Books

Left: Cover of The Midnight Timetable (Credit: John Murray Press)

“Minsuh, an anthropology student researching shamanistic rituals and the mudangs who perform them, has dismissed the supernatural her whole life. To her, mudangs are performers skilled at pleasing researchers. But as she gets deeper into her research, she’s afflicted with a mysterious shinbyeong— a holy sickness unique to Korea—causing her to start losing her mind. In her desperation, she turns to a “real” mudang, but will she find salvation for her affliction or will she be driven further into her madness?”
— Honford Star

Left: Cover of Alien Gods (Credit: Honford Star)

“Seul, a construction project manager, investigates a foul stench beneath the premier department store in Seoul. Hidden records from the building’s construction during the colonial era hint at madness. The only clue is a cryptic phrase: “Bin-o-jae.” Beneath the glittering showroom, she uncovers secrets tied not only to workers’ suffering and capitalism’s horrors, but to her own body.”
— Honford Star

Left: Cover of Come Down to a Lower Place (Credit: Honford Star)

“University student Wonjun visits his friend Jingu’s basement apartment, only to find unsettling changes that are somehow tied to a K-pop star’s suicide. Jingu behaves coldly, a strange statue looms in the corner, and reality begins to fracture. Blurring the lines between hallucination and nightmare, this graphic novel by JaeHoon Choi explores guilt and despair through a Lovecraftian lens, creating a haunting tale of emotional and cosmic horror.”
— Honford Star

Left: Cover of The Call of the Friend (Credit: Honford Star)

Left: Cover of The Healing Power of Korean Letter Writing (Credit: Canongate Books)

Left: Cover of No Hand Held Mine (Credit: Rutgers University Press)

I’m particularly excited for this one! As you might know, I’m a huge fan of Hwang Bo-reum’s debut novel, Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop!

Left: Cover of Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books (Credit: Bloomsbury Publishing)