August 7, 2023
Yoon (Run Me to the Earth) delivers a lean collection of stories featuring restless, complex characters driven by their need for connection and forgiveness. Throughout, themes of displacement and loss are juxtaposed with simple moments of love and understanding. In “Bosun,” an ex-con wrestles with how to relate to others, considering all that he’s already lost. “Komarov” finds Lee Jooyun, who fled North Korea and eventually wound up in Barcelona, agreeing to wear a wire to gain information on a Russian boxer for her birth country, in exchange for learning about the family she left behind. In the title story, 22-year-old Andrei Bulavin composes a letter to his uncle back in Russia, recounting a disturbing supernatural event at the Korean settlement he’s been sent to police. Yoon carefully mingles the extraordinary with the everyday, evoking the natural world with simple yet striking language: “We come upon a tree that has flowered early. It stands alone amid the endless row of cedars that line the road, its bright red color so sudden and distracting—like the appearance of a door among the evergreens.” This is an elegant exploration of life’s brutal and beautiful moments.
Starred review from June 10, 2024
Young Lions Award winner Yoon's third short story collection (following 2017's The Mountain), narrated by Raymond J. Lee, transports listeners into a breathtaking tapestry of worlds, exploring the complicated communities of the Korean diaspora. The seven stories feature characters with rich inner lives, engaging with longing, loss, and hope as they search for belonging. "At the Post Station" features a Japanese samurai who travels with a boy soon to return to Korea, and in "Bosun," a formerly incarcerated man settles in a small Upstate New York town in the mountains. Other stories feature Korean shop owners in London who work far too hard and a maid in Spain who agrees to spy on a Russian prizefighter who could be her son. Lee honors Yoon's simple but beautifully crafted language, providing a soulful narration that taps into the melancholic and meditative atmosphere. VERDICT This haunting collection, featuring complex individuals caught between cultures, is a gem, recommended for any collection of audio short stories. A good pick for those who enjoyed Te-Ping Chen's Land of Big Numbers and Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry's What Isn't Remembered.--Scott DiMarco
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