Korean fiction set in Seoul

Submitted: 4th November 2024

The Rainfall Market

On the first day of the monsoon an old ramshackle building appears. This is The Rainfall Market. Inside you will find magical bookstores, hairdressers, perfumeries and anything your heart desires.

But you cannot enter without an invitation.

Now this sounds magical like the Night Circus so I was sold immediately!

Name the translator – Slin Jung

Map of locations in The Rainfall Market

Korean fiction set in Seoul

BOARDING PASS INFORMATION

Destination : Seoul

Author guide: You Yeong Gwang

Genre: fantasy, translated

Food and drink to accompany: ooh anything you find on the market!

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#Bookreview

@thebooktrailer

A novel to transport you to a fantasy market in Seoul

Map of locations in The Rainfall Market

Now I am going to start off by saying that this feels very much like a YA book or even younger when it is billed as an adult one. That might be as it’s a translated book and that the stories within are quite whimsical and cute in many ways. No matter – just don’t go expecting an adult read I would say.

I think the less you know about this book before you step inside, the better. Keep that mind open and allow your teenage? protagonist to lead you along the way. I mean, imagine getting a book that gives you the chance to change your life. Ok, so books often feel that they do – but just imagine if one really did!

I would so want to wander around the Rainfall Market in real life. I have to write a letter explaining my problems and thoughts and then if I am selected they will allow me to travel to a mysterious place where creatures from another world help me shape my own. Do you know this book was a lot more magical/fantasy than I was expecting but it totally worked and I was drawn in.

The scene setting was just something else. I am a very visual reader but even I had little to do imagining what was going on. It reads like a manga comic book strip but with serious issues and dark corners in among all that cuteness and fantasy.

The premise is simple and the language childlike in many ways but the cultural and language differences really add to the overall feel of this reading experience.

And that cover…wow!