[News Figures] 'Gorae' Cheon Myeong-gwan Nominated for the UK Booker Prize

Included in the 'International Section' Shortlist of 6 Films
Jury: "There Has Never Been a Novel Like This... An Irresistible Charm"
After High School Graduation, Worked Selling Golf Equipment and as an Insurance Salesman
Wrote First Novel at Age Forty, Debuted in 2003 with <Frank and I>

Author Cheon Myeong-kwan (59) has been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, the most prestigious literary award in the UK.

On the 18th (local time), the Booker Prize judging panel announced on their website that Cheon Myeong-kwan's novel Gorae (2004) was selected as one of the six finalists for the 2023 International Booker Prize shortlist. Translator Kim Ji-young, who translated Gorae into English, was also included on the list.

The judging panel introduced Gorae by saying, "There has never been a novel like this," and recommended reading it. "You will be swept away by its energy. The characters are unrealistic but the story is plausible. They are not good characters, but they have an irresistible charm."

Author Cheon Myeong-kwan shortlisted for the UK Booker Prize International category with "Whale".
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Born in 1964 in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Cheon Myeong-kwan worked various jobs in his twenties, including selling golf equipment and working as an insurance salesman, after graduating from high school. Regarding why he did not attend university, Cheon said in a March 2010 interview with Women Chosun, "When I was in high school, I ranked 58th out of 58 students in my class." Although he was not a poor student, he was suffering from severe lethargy at the time and gave up on university after seeing his rank.

Besides being a novelist, Cheon is also well-known as a film screenwriter. His interest in screenwriting was greatly influenced by a close friend from his military service. Cheon's military comrade is director Jang Dong-hong, who directed the film Strike Day. Together, they began working on films in the 1990s in Chungmuro, Jung-gu, Seoul, known as the "Street of Filmmakers," and wrote works such as The Gunman and Beijing Restaurant.

The novel Aging Family was adapted into a screenplay by Cheon himself and directed by Song Hae-sung, who directed Pain, and was released in 2013. Cheon also made his directorial debut in 2019 with Hot Blood. However, the film's release, originally scheduled for summer 2020, was indefinitely postponed due to COVID-19 and eventually premiered in March 2022, but it failed at the box office.

Cheon began writing novels at the age of 40 while working as a screenwriter. Encouraged by his younger sibling, he started writing seriously. He debuted in 2003 with his first short story Frank and I, and gained recognition from critics and the public with his 2004 novel Gorae, which won the Munhakdongne Novel Award.

Cover of Cheon Myeong-kwan's 'Whale'. Photo by Munhakdongne

His life story?living as a so-called "high school graduate unemployed," working as a golf shop clerk and insurance salesman in his twenties, aspiring to be a film director in his thirties, and then turning to short and full-length novels upon his sibling's encouragement, winning consecutive literary contests?became a hot topic among the literary community and fans. Regarding this, Cheon joked in an April 2013 interview with Hankyoreh, "If you are a writer, you should be born into a Russian noble family, be exiled by the Tsar, suffer from aphasia for about six years, participate in a civil war, fall in love with a gypsy, then wander Africa on a Portuguese merchant ship?something like that. What kind of story is it that I just didn’t go to college and worked at an insurance company?" This is why Cheon is often called the "storyteller of the era," having gone through various life experiences.

This is the fourth time a Korean work has been shortlisted in this category. In 2016, Han Kang’s novel The Vegetarian won the Man Booker International Prize, and in 2018 her other novel White and last year Jeong So-ra’s short story collection Cursed Rabbit were shortlisted. In 2019, Hwang Sok-yong’s At Dusk and last year Park Sang-young’s Love in the Big City made it to the longlist.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.