North Station

3.3/5 ( ratings)

A writer struggles to come to terms with the death of her beloved mentor; the staging of an experimental play goes awry; time freezes for two lovers on a platform, waiting for the train that will take one of them away; a woman living in a foreign country discovers she has been issued the wrong ID.

Emotionally haunting and intellectually stimulating, the seven stories in North Station represent the range and power of Bae Suah's distinctive voice and style, which delights in digressions, multiple storylines, and sudden ruptures of societal norms. Heavily influenced by the German authors she's read and translated, Bae's stories combine elements of Korean and European storytelling in a way that's unforgettable and mesmerizing.

Bae Suah, one of the most highly acclaimed contemporary Korean authors, has published more than a dozen short story collections and novels, and has won a number of prestigious awards. She has also translated several books from the German, including works by W. G. Sebald, Franz Kafka, and Jenny Erpenbeck. Her novel Nowhere to Be Found was longlisted for the PEN Translation Prize and the Best Translated Book Awards.

Deborah Smith has translated two other books by Bae and won the Man Booker International Prize for her translation of Han Kang's The Vegetarian. She is the founder of Tilted Axis Press.