Kim Hoon

Life

Kim was born on May 5, 1948 in Seoul, Korea. After graduating from Whimoon High School, Kim Hoon entered Korea University in 1966. He joined Hankook Ilbo as a journalist in 1973. He made his debut as a novelist at the age of forty-seven with the publication of Memories of Earthenware with Comb Teeth Pattern. His second novel Song of Sword, which was awarded the prestigious Dong-in Literature Prize, was a literary sensation and elevated him into one of the most recognized names in Korean literature. Two years later in 2003, Kim’s reputation as a writer of exceptional talent was affirmed when his first published short-story “Cremation” was chosen as the winner of Lee Sang Literature Prize. Kim worked as a journalist for 20 years before becoming a writer and is well known for refusing to use anything but a pencil when he writes. He is also an avid bicyclist who does not have a driver’s license and has written a series of essays on his bicycle travels across the south of the Korean peninsula..

Works

Though he became a fiction writer at a relatively late age, Kim writes with flair and the dexterity of a seasoned novelist. Grounded in his journalistic background, his writing style is polished and unsentimental, and Kim crafts his sentences masterfully to infuse lyrical rhythm to his work without sacrificing clarity and poise. His job as a journalist, which required him to rush to the scenes of disaster, has also given him an insight into the psychology of people in extreme circumstances. Kim’s ability to discern pertinent details and moments of significance in the chaos of life-or-death situations, which he perfected in his line of work as a reporter, can be observed in his first novel, Memories of Earthenware with Comb Teeth Pattern. Written in form of a detective story involving a mysterious death of a firefighter, the novel presents a palpably real portrait of the battle with raging fire, and investigates the intensity of human emotions in dire circumstances with acuity, subtlety and insight. In his second novel Song of Sword, Kim gives us a powerful picture of General Lee Sun-sin, not as a mere war-hero, but as an ordinary man facing extraordinary circumstances and struggling with complexity of his own interior landscape. His most recent novel Song of Strings focuses on the life of the renowned musician Ureug who lived more than fifteen hundred years ago during the Shilla period.

Namhan sanseong (hangul: 남한산성) is his latest work, and has sold almost 1 million copies in South Korea. It is based on the incident of Byeongjahoran, in which during the Second Manchu invasion of Korea in 1636, when King Injo of Joseon Dynasty took refuge in the Namhan Mountain Fortress in Gyeonggi-do, in an ill-fated attempt to defy the rule of the Manchu Qing Empire Hong Taiji, following the First Manchu invasion of Korea in 1627. It was adapted into a film, entitled The Fortress, in 2017.

In 2009 a musical also titled, Namhansanseong was based on the novel, but focuses on the lives of common people and their spirit of survival during harsh situations. It stars Yesung of boy band Super Junior as villain "Jung Myung-soo", a servant-turned-interpreter. It was shown from 14 to 31 October at Seongnam Arts Center Opera House.

In 2011 Kim’s work “Schwertgesang”translated by Heidi Kang and Ahn So-hyun, won the Daesan Award for Translated Literature.

Translated works

Language; German
Title: Schwertgesang
Original title: 칼의 노래
Genre: Modern/ Fiction
Publisher: Edition Delta
Translated by: Heidi Kang

Language: French
Title: Le Chant Du Sabre
Original title: 칼의 노래
Genre: Modern/ Fiction
Publisher: Gallimard
Translated by : Yang Young-Nan , François Théron

Language: English
Title: From Powder to Powder
Genre: Modern/ Fiction
In: Land of Exile

Awards