Keum Suk Gendry-Kim – författare

Grass is a powerful anti-war graphic novel, offering up firsthand the life story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee who was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the second World War a disputed chapter in 20th century Asian history. Beginning in Lee s childhood, Grass shows the leadup to World War II from a child s vulnerable perspective, detailing how one person experienced the Japanese occupation and the widespread suffering it entailed for ordinary Korean folk. Keum Suk Gendry-Kim emphasizes Lee s strength in overcoming the many forms of adversity she experienced. Grass is painted in a black ink that flows with lavish details of the beautiful fields and farmland of Korea and uses heavy brushwork on the somber interiors of Lee s memories. Cartoonist Gendry-Kim s interviews with Lee become an integral part of Grass, forming the heart and architecture of this powerful non-fiction graphic novel and offering a holistic view of how Lee s wartime suffering changed her. Grass is a landmark graphic novel that makes personal the desperate cost of war and the importance of peace.

Keum Suk Gendry-Kim was an adult when her mother revealed a family secret: She had been separated from her sister during the Korean War. It s not an uncommon story the peninsula was split across the 38th parallel, dividing one country into two. As many fled violence in the north, not everyone was able to make it south. Her mother s story inspired Gendry-Kim to begin interviewing her and other Koreans separated by the war; that research fueled a deeply resonant graphic novel. The Waiting is the fictional story of Gwija, told by her novelist daughter, Jina. When Gwija was seventeen years old, after hearing that the Japanese were seizing unmarried girls, her family married her in a hurry to a man she didn't know. Japan fell, Korea gained its independence, and the couple started a family. But peace didn t come. The young family of four fled south. On the road, while breastfeeding and changing her daughter, Gwija was separated from her husband and son. Then seventy years passed. Seventy years of waiting. Gwija is now an elderly woman and Jina can t stop thinking about the promise she made to help find her brother. Expertly translated from the Korean by the award-winning translator Janet Hong, The Waiting is the devastating followup to Gendry-Kim s Grass, which appeared on best-of-the-year lists from The New York Times, The Guardian, Library Journal, and more.

A delicate, timeless, and breathtaking coming-of-age story. The critically acclaimed and award-winning cartoonist Keum Suk Gendry-Kim returns with a stunning addition to her body of graphic fiction rooted in Korean history. Adapted from Park Wan-seo s beloved novel, The Naked Tree paints a stark portrait of a single nation s fabric slowly torn to shreds by political upheaval and armed conflict. The year is 1951. Twenty-year-old wallflower Lee Kyung ekes out a living at the US Post Exchange, where goods and services of varying stripe are available for purchase. She peddles hand-painted portraits on silk handkerchiefs to soldiers passing through. When a handsome young northern escapee and erstwhile fine artist is hired despite waning demand, an unlikely friendship blossoms into a young woman s first brush with desire against the backdrop of the Korean War at its most devastating. Gendry-Kim brings a masterpiece of world literature to life with bold, expressive lines that capture a denuded landscape brutally forced into transition and the people who must find their way back to each other within it. Available for the first time in English, this edition of The Naked Tree is exquisitely translated by award-winning expert Janet Hong.

The author of Grass and The Naked Tree returns with a profound tale of familyYuna never wanted to adopt a dog. But with her partner in mourning–and in desperate need of a boost in morale–she gives in to his humble request. And in the grand tradition of reluctant pet owners, she and their puppy soon become inseparable. The young couple even goes so far as to relocate to soothe their new canine pal’s anxiety. After all, there’s nothing like a move to the country to set yourself right. Right?The idyll of a quiet life soon gives way to a surprising degree of antagonism, including clashes with long-time local residents of a different generation. The culture shock is palpable for all three urban transplants as the isolation of their new environs starts to sink in. They eventually adopt another dog, and still another–all while reckoning with the ups and downs of middle-age and childlessness in an unforgivingly traditional milieu.Dog Days is critically-acclaimed and multi-award-winning cartoonist Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s first foray into contemporary fiction. With the aid of veteran translator Janet Hong, Gendry-Kim’s twenty-first century tale of an unconventional family building trust with one another and their neighbors is a heartfelt exploration of compassion and the unlikely places we find the love we all need.

Award-winning cartoonist Keum Suk Gendry-Kim contemplates and explores the long shadow North Korea casts over Korean society. On an island located an hour from Seoul, North Korea sits visible from cartoonist Keum Suk Gendry-Kim s home and studio. The specter of the infamous dictatorship and nuclear power looms over daily life. Artillery fire, helicopters, and sirens from a nearby military base paint the acoustic landscape. In her award-winning books Grass and The Waiting, Gendry-Kim documents the pain and heartbreak of Korea s history. In My Friend Kim Jong-Un, she looks to the present to the man currently responsible for upholding the national divide created after World War Two. While the rest of the world partakes in the popularity of Korean culture, a certain unease and anxiety hangs in the air in South Korea as its people still grapple with the distrust and anger of one culture split into two distinct societies. Gendry-Kim explores the life of the supreme leader, searching for commonalities to make sense of the daily fear: from his birth to his international education, his hobbies, and his relationships. She weaves her personal accounts and includes interviews with former South Korean president Moon Jae-in, North Korean defectors, researchers, journalists, and even Kim s former chef. Translated by the award-winning Janet Hong, My Friend is a cautionary tale on what makes a dictator, at a time when these lessons are more relevant in the West than ever.