Art on Fire

‘The photo, the crime, the dog, and the artist. I kept asking myself: is this for real? I couldn’t stop wondering and couldn’t stop reading either. Yun Ko-eun is such a master storyteller, and this translation immaculately reflects her style. So many disparate events are happening in this novel and yet they are all convincingly probable. In the end, I am left pondering about reality. About how we all live once before we burn.’

‘The photo, the crime, the dog, and the artist. I kept asking myself: is this for real? I couldn’t stop wondering and couldn’t stop reading either. Yun Ko-eun is such a master storyteller, and this translation immaculately reflects her style. So many disparate events are happening in this novel and yet they are all convincingly probable. In the end, I am left pondering about reality. About how we all live once before we burn.’

‘ Art on Fire , by turns comical and apocalyptic, is a brilliant satire of the art world, late-stage capitalism, and climate change … [An] enjoyable romp through our current plutocratic hellscape, with Yun Ko-eun skewering the sacred cows of fine art and the oligarchs who buy it.’

‘Yun Ko-eun gloriously takes on the art world, hysterically, delectably, thoroughly exposing its gatekeepers, makers, and audiences.’

‘Yun Ko-eun is back with another darkly humorous and biting satire … The creation, commodification, and celebration of art will leave an indelible mark in readers’ minds.’

‘Yun Ko-eun puts a lighted match to our present-day bonfire of the vanities, and the result is a memorably bizarre spectacle.’

‘Yun Ko-eun’s surgical satire on the age-old war between art and commerce has never felt this fresh and this relevant.’

‘While nature usually serves as inspiration for art, in Art of Fire it also plays a role as a barrier to the public consumption and commodification of art. A lot happens in this book with a lot of themes being explored, and it’s done with humour and wit … I am continually impressed with the seamless translation of Lizzie Buehler. I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys surrealist fiction, especially to those who want to explore more Korean translated books.’

‘[An] absurdist satire that skewers modern capitalist culture and the art world.’

‘Higgins effortlessly captures Dusapin’s ephemeral prose … the spaces left unfilled are what give the text its otherworldly magic.’

‘This is a book of absence and silence … the balance between revelation and continued mystery makes it both tantalising and satisfying.’

‘A really beautiful, quiet novel. A story of secrets and family, asking and answering the question if one can ever really can go home again.’

‘Dusapin’s storytelling and exploration of complicated female relationships evokes Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels and Michael Ondaatje’s Divisadero .’

‘Poignant.’

‘Holds us in its spell … A moving tale of family strife.’

‘Evokes unresolved family history with subtle heat … spare, restrained … vivid and intriguing.’

‘Moody, sensual and extremely elegant.’

‘Yun Ko-eun’s novel is a good, entertaining read that proceeds by a kind of literary Zeno’s Paradox.’

Praise for The Disaster Tourist :

‘A fresh and sharp story about life under late capitalism … an entertaining eco-thriller.’

Praise for The Disaster Tourist :

‘The forces pitched against Yona reveal their true scale and monstrosity in a frothy-seeming satire that, in the end, shreds the very idea of commerce to bleeding tatters. I’d say this was a perfect short novel for reading on the beach, but given what’s in store ...’

Praise for The Disaster Tourist :

‘Throughout The Disaster Tourist , there is a sense of impending catastrophe, of something huge and uncontrollable swallowing up those who spend their lives packaging, controlling, and creating these macabre tours ... Phenomenal.’

Praise for The Disaster Tourist :

‘Excellent ... a plain rendering of the extraordinary.’

Yun Ko-eun is the winner of 2021 CWA Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation. Her prizewinning novel, The Disaster Tourist, was nominated for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Rosetta Award, Comedy Women in Print Award, and the Dublin Literature Award. She hosts a daily radio program EBS Book Cafe in South Korea. Lizzie Buehler is the translator of The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eun and Korean Teachers by Seo Su-jin. She holds an MFA in literary translation from the University of Iowa and has studied comparative literature at Princeton and Harvard.