Book covers can sometimes be very misleading. Take for example the English translation of Elisa “Winter in Sokcho”. The pastel colors, thick and blocky typeface and overall feeling of the design shouts the gaudiness of contemporary North Korean design (link). Yet, the award-winning short novel is set not in the North but in the small border city of Sokcho in the South.

A young unnamed French-Korean works in an old guesthouse Sokcho, a small town on the border between South and North Korea. It is winter and the guests are there, so she spends her time observing them and meeting with her fishmonger mother. One day, a French graphic novel author arrives at her dilapidated guesthouse. As she helps him go on small trips around the region, the two form a strange relationship.

In many ways, “Winter in Sokcho” reminds of the Japanese I-novels popular in the beginning of the 20th century.