Why should we read foreign books? Literature is an important way to inherit a life in a personal way. In literature, there is no “no” for us. Since ancient, people usually hid their desires in literature. By form of myth, fairytale, song, play, and novel… In this context, reading words from somewhere you’ve never been even in a dream, is a way to steal their sight and sense.

In this list, I introduce the books that lend me their city’s eye.

Recitation by Suah Bae

Suah is one of the mysterious and attractive names in the Korean literature scene. Though her career as a writer was not short-her first novel was written in 1993-still she is still unknown and new.

And this novel shows that her style very well. Hard to understand, but still, the feelings are alive. The speaker’s voice is unstable. Never stopped shaking. That wave brings us eternal recitation.

“Bae Suah offers the chance to un-know—to see the everyday afresh and be defamiliarized with what we believe we know—which is no small offering.”

—Music & Literature

Almost Transparent Blue by Ryū Murakami

This story takes place against the backdrop of a time when everyone believed All you need is love.

It is a story of broken young people who waste their youth in a mess. There is some hope hidden in a story that seems to be nothing but ruins… much more than you can imagine.

They do not believe in hope, They deny hope rather than believe in it. Its existence is not even mentioned. In the book, their lives are depicted as the wanderings of future young people, but they do not think about their misfortune. Furthermore, I only look for ways to break down even further.

And this actually brings readers new hope.