An Aspiring Novelist and Sound Engineer's Faith... 'The Best Things Come to Me'

28th Hankyoreh Literary Award Winner Kim Hee-jae's 'Taengkeu'
Exploring Diverse 'Faith'

He was obsessed with books from a young age. Naturally, he dreamed of a job related to books. He vaguely wanted to make books and admired the profession of a novelist. Although he majored in film studies at university and briefly tried his hand at screenwriting, he was more drawn to novels, which allow for freer narration, rather than screenplays that require condensing situations mainly through dialogue. Thus, after four attempts at literary contests, writer Kim Hee-jae won the Hankyoreh Literary Award with his novel "Taengkeu" (Tank). The winning novel "Taengkeu" was unanimously selected within 30 minutes of the final round. Although he had never taken a writing class, established authors showered him with praise. Novelist Kim Geum-hee said in a recommendation, “It is a novel that advances quickly and captivatingly, hard to believe it is a debut full-length novel by a new writer,” and novelist Lee Ki-ho highly praised it as “the most complete work among contest-winning pieces I have encountered in recent years.” Novelist Pyun Hye-young evaluated, “The author willingly leads readers to love. One cannot help but be fascinated by such a story devoted to love.”

Writer Kim Hee-jae [Photo by Hankyoreh Publishing]

The novel is set in a prayer room called "Taengkeu," about five pyeong (approximately 16.5 square meters) in size, existing without a cult leader or doctrine, and unfolds a diverse array of human figures who hold the belief that “by trusting and praying, the best will eventually come to me.” The novel shares the author’s own doubts about faith, as he is a Catholic by birth but not devout. At a publication press conference held on the 18th at a cafe in Jeong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, Kim explained his motivation for writing: “Atheists or agnostics do not lack faith. Their metaphysical beliefs are also a kind of conviction. Ultimately, everyone has their own beliefs. I also wanted to explore the boundary between cults and non-cults through the story.”

He also focuses on conflicts of faith. “I am someone who believes but also has a strong tendency toward disbelief. I wanted to express such contradictory aspects through the lives of various people.”

He wrote the novel while working as a sound engineer, adding music to compositions he received from composers. He said, “An engineer refines the creations of composers. Meeting many creators, I learned a lot about how they approach and think about their works,” and applied that attitude to his novel. Although he confessed, “The biggest difficulty was not being sure if I was writing correctly,” the joy of writing was so great that he plans to continue both writing and music in the future. He said, “I haven’t decided on the theme for my next work yet, but I want to write about life. I want to cover the stories of many people.”

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