Book Review-Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop By Hwang Bo-Reum

I was introduced to the author Hwang Bo-Reum through her non-fiction book Everyday I Read (Bo-Reum, 2025). her unique take on reading, the type of reading she does and her personal feeling about reading drew me into the book. As I became more drawn into the non-fiction book, I became curious about this, her fictional book about a woman becoming a bookstore owner. Afterall, it is the secret dream of every bibliophile to one day become a bookstore owner.

I had a premonition that this book would not be a usual bookstore owning story because of the cultural perspective is Asian, which means two things: the first is that the story would not be overwrought with drama and emotions, indeed, the general emotional feel of the story is reserved, although underneath the placid surface of the interaction between the characters, the characters are dealing with intense emotions; the second is that the Asian ethos of duty, societal responsibility, and acceptance of societal assigned role will dominate the narrative, this ethos actually significantly dominate and motivate the plot.

A critical mindset that the reader must possess is that of someone who lives in present day Korea, where the societal definition of success, normality, and expectations dominates the character’s inner life. The inner struggles and conflict that each of the characters is experiencing dominates the stories. While western readers have similar experiences with the pressures brought on by familial, societal, and cultural expectations, the degree of the pressures that the Asian society undergo is orders of magnitude greater than the western society. It is critical that the reader understand or at least empathize with the pressures that the characters are experiencing in order to dig deeper into the conflicts that are central to the story.

As I am reading the narrative, I was thinking about whether the western reader would find the conflict and inner turmoil of the characters to be surreal or overwrought. Since I am Asian, I find the author’s description of the character’s inner life entirely believable, in fact I completely empathize with many of the characters as I have experienced the same emotions.

The story opens with the owner of the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop, Yeongju, pondering whether she was making the correct decision by opening the bookstore. Her story and her reasoning set the tone for all the other characters in the book. They are all characters that are behaving and reacting outside of the accepted societal norms. The characters would all be considered as outcasts from society, as they are not living up to the societal definition of being on a path to success. It just happens that Yeongju’s story opens the story, and it is a compelling story, involving gender roles, traditionally defined familial relationships, and daring to live outside of  traditions.

The book introduces new characters gradually, taking its time to give the readers each character’s background, which all novels do, this novel takes its time, slowly building the character’s story. The pace of the character introduction is integrated within the story’s flow. I initially though the pacing was a bit too slow, but once I understood or what I think I understood to be the author’s rhythm, I slowed down my reader’s expectations and went with the flow. The initial pacing was an integral part of the author’s intention for the story’s feel.

As the number of characters began to increase gradually, and the reader became familiarized with each character, the pace of the story starts to pick up. This is not new to any reader of fiction, it is however, a slow buildup, perfectly in tune with the Asian sense of rhythm of life.

Even as the pace of the story begins to increase, it is never moving as quickly as a western novel would. Every chapter is a gentle addition to the narrative rather than a sudden shock to the status quo. Also contrary to the expectation of the western reader, the denouement never comes, which may agitate some readers, I accepted the gentleness and did not expect dramatic shifts in action. Indeed, the story ends quite gently, even though there were a number of developments that changed the arc of the story and gives the reader a picture of how the story and each of the characters evolves. The gradual resolution felt natural and met with the reader’s expectations, after the reader had slowly accepted the pace of the story for what it is. At the end of the story, the fate of each of the characters is described simply and their stories are resolved, without drama.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story, it does make me want to find out about the continuation of the arc for each of the character, which speaks for the author’s ability to draw the reader into the character’s stories, which in the end is what story telling is about.

Works Cited

Bo-Reum, H. (2025). Everyday I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books. NYC: Bloomsbury Publishing.