Bora Chung

Amidst its many locked doors and strange disappearances, the senior night guard of a mysterious research centre slowly reveals one ghost story after another to our unnamed protagonist, who comes to realize that the building houses an untold number of cursed objects - objects that enact revenge, teach lessons and push people to change their lives, or to the brink of insanity. Unlike Chung's acclaimed short story collection Cursed Bunny and the highly anticipated collection Your Utopia, these linked stories take the shape of a novel, the haunting vignettes like a series of interconnected nightmares.

The highly anticipated new novel from Bora Chung, author of the National Book Award finalist and International Booker Prize shortlisted Cursed Bunny In a labyrinthine research facility, where those who open the wrong door might find it's disappeared behind them or that the echoing footsteps they're running from are their own, an unnamed protagonist begins their night shift under the watchful eye of the building's enigmatic senior guard. Each evening, as the fluorescent lights hum and the silence grows heavier, the guard shares another tale of cursed objects and lives unspooled by vengeance, sorrow or revelation. But these are not mere ghost stories. They're warnings. Lessons. Or, perhaps, confessions . . . As the nights stretch on and reality frays, our protagonist starts to suspect that the building itself is alive with malevolent intent and that the objects they guard aren't just cursed. They're waiting. Watching. Equal parts bone-chilling, wryly funny and deeply political, The Midnight Timetable is a masterful work of literary horror from one of our time's greatest imaginations. 'Disturbing, chilling, wrenching, and absolute genius' Frances Cha on Cursed Bunny

From the author and translator of the National Book Award finalist and Booker Prize shortlisted Cursed Bunny, comes a novel-in-ghost-stories, set in a mysterious research center that houses cursed objects, where those who open the wrong door might find it's disappeared behind them, or that the echoing footsteps they're running from are their own... The acclaimed Korean horror and sci-fi writer's goosebump-inducing new book follows an employee on the night shift at the Institute. They soon learn why some employees don't last long at the center. The handkerchief in Room 302 once belonged to the late mother of two sons, whose rivalry imbues the handkerchief with undue power and unravels the lives of those who seek to possess it. Meanwhile a live-streaming, ghost-chasing employee steals a cursed sneaker down the hall, but later finds he can't escape its tread. The cat in Room 206 begins to reveal the crimes of its former family, wanting to understand its own path to the Institute's dimly lit halls. But Chung's haunted institute isn't just a chilling place to play. As in her astounding collections Cursed Bunny and Your Utopia, these violent allegories subtly excavate the horrors of animal cosmetic testing, "conversion therapy," domestic abuse, and late-stage capitalism. Equal parts bone-chilling, wryly funny, and deeply political, Midnight Timetable is a masterful work of literary horror from one of our time's greatest imaginations.

En starkt originell samling berättelser från en av de största stjärnorna inom den nya koreanska litteraturvåg som nu sveper över världen." Bora Chungs noveller är fruktansvärda -- och alldeles, alldeles underbara." Alba Mogensen, Borås tidning m.fl." Jag faller handlöst för de bästa novellerna i Förbannad kanin." Rasmus Landström, Aftonbladet"Med en säregen känsla för det oväntade, okända och obehagliga förmår hon som få andra bevisa novellgenrens potential: att på begränsat utrymme veckla ut hela världar." Sebastian Lönnlöv, Svenska Dagbladet"Med sin underskruvade prosa rör hon vid smärtpunkter utan åthävor, och utan att väja för halsbrytande perspektiv. Udden riktas mot förtryck, inte minst av patriarkal sort." Aris Fioretos, DN"Det är hisnande, obehagligt och samtidigt meningsfullt." Jenny Aschenbrenner, ETC En kanin som ruinerar ett företagsimperiumEn man som förälskar sig i sin robotEn flicka som blöder guldI den sydkoreanska författaren Bora Chungs litte­rära värld kan vad som helst hända. I de här tio visionära och samhällskritiska novellerna rör hon sig med befriande lätthet genom en ständigt förvrängd verklighet. Några av berättelserna tangerar skräck, andra science fiction, fabel eller dystopi -- men i centrum står hela tiden människans begär efter makt, hämnd, rikedom, evig ungdom och kärlek. Bora Chung är född och bosatt i Seoul. Hon har en doktorsexamen i slavisk litteratur och är vid sidan av sitt eget skrivande även verksam som översättare av rysk och polsk litteratur till koreanska. Förbannad kanin är hennes stora internationella genombrott och har mötts av strålande recensioner världen över och nominerats till en lång rad litteraturpriser. Anders Karlsson och Okkyoung Park har översatt ­koreansk litteratur till svenska i över 20 år. De ligger bland annat bakom några av de svenska översättningarna av Nobelpristagaren Han Kang. Finalist till Booker International PrizeFinalist till National Book Awards "Om du letar efter en kuslig samling berättelser som kryper under huden, borrar sig in i märgen och stannar där för alltid är Bora Chungs samling ett läskigt, oförglömligt äventyr." Wired Magazine"Läs inte den här boken medan du äter -- men missa för allt i världen inte dessa oförskräckta, intelligenta berättelser heller." Kirkus Review

**One of TIME Magazine's 100 Must-Read Books of 2024, and Kirkus Reviews' Best Fiction of 2024** "Chung builds out her stories with imagination, absurdity and a dry sense of humor, all applied with X-Acto knife precision." ―Alexandra Kleeman, The New York Times Book Review From the acclaimed author and translator of the National Book Award Finalist, Cursed Bunny, a fresh, uncanny, and utterly profound collection of stories set in near and distant futures that reflect our deepest fears--and deepest desires. Bora Chung's inimitable blend of horror, absurdity, and dark humor reaches its peak in these tales of loss and discovery, dystopia and idealism, death and immortality. In a thrilling translation by the acclaimed Anton Hur, readers will experience a variety of possible fates for humanity, from total demise via a disease whose only symptom is casual cannibalism to a world in which even dreams can be monitored and used to convict people of crimes. In "The Center for Immortality Research," a low-level employee runs herself ragged planning a fancy gala for donors only to be blamed for the chaos that ensues during the event in front of the mysterious celebrity benefactors hoping to live forever. In "A Song for Sleep," an AI elevator in an apartment complex develops a tender, one-sided love for an elderly resident. "Seed" traverses the final frontier of capitalism's destruction of the planet--but nature always creeps back to life. If you haven't yet experienced the fruits of Chung's singular imagination, Your Utopia is waiting.

Winner of a PEN/Heim Grant. Cursed Bunny is a genre-defying collection of short stories by Korean author Bora Chung. Blurring the lines between magical realism, horror, and science-fiction, Chung uses elements of the fantastic and surreal to address the very real horrors and cruelties of patriarchy and capitalism in modern society. Anton Hur's translation skilfully captures the way Chung's prose effortlessly glides from being terrifying to wryly humorous.