Review by Freya Bennett
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop has been the perfect tonic for an intense world. If I could prescribe one book to soothe a weary soul, it would be this charming love letter to book lovers everywhere. Read in hospital as I awaited my c-section, it was balm to my anxious heart.
Many of us have fantasised about opening a bookshop and while this is usually not something achievable (especially in this economy), you can delve into Hwang Bo-Reum‘s world and live that life for a little bit. A book of self-acceptance that encourages the reader to reflect on their feelings towards themselves and hopefully learn to be just that little bit kinder.
Yeongju was burnt out. And something had to be done about it. She got divorced, quit a job she described as “siphoning her soul away,” and opened a bookshop in a quiet neighbourhood of Seoul. With enough money to last two years living her dream, can she make the bookshop profitable enough to sustain it forever? The neighbourhood offers a cast of close-knit friends who take refuge in the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop as they work out where they fit in this crazy world.
An ode to the quiet life, to healing from productivity culture and learning to go slow.
