This past Sunday, I walked into a book shop that I had heard about from my sister and had never been to before. As I walked in and started browsing the new books section for something interesting, the purple-blue cover of Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop immediately caught by eye. I picked it up and read the synopsis on the inner jacket. Yep, this was going to be my reading for the upcoming week.
A book about a book shop while I was checking out a book shop after a long while of not engaging with book shops at all. Very meta! I had mostly considered independent book shops like Book City to be a relic of the past having been devoured by the ever voracious jaws of Amazon. Glad to see that’s not the case at least where I am.
This book delivered on all its premise. I really enjoyed the reflective nature of the book using books and book shops as a social medium to talk about the various people involved and their struggles and triumphs in life. I definitely felt a sense of connection to the characters and the space, I could picture the bookshop in my head and the interactions of the characters.
I connected with the book and its characters on an emotional level as well and some sections of the book made me tear up a bit. There is a level of cozy intensity to this book that is just perfect. The characters get the required space to develop and interact on a deeper level while staying connected to the environment of the book in a way that felt natural.
The only real criticism of the book is that since it is a translation, some of the translation feels a bit stiff and tonally strange. I have seen this in other translations from Japanese/Korean to English. It can be really hard to translate the tone and convey the motion and the translator has an unenviable task. That said, its not enough of a issue here to make the book meaningfully worse in any way.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book and if you are someone who likes books about books and bookshops then I strongly recommend you check this out. And it has a great looking cover too, whoever did that: you did a wonderful job!
P.S – If you are in Toronto and enjoy reading, go check out Book City! Support your local independent bookstore!