Book talk: The New Seoul Park Jelly Massacre
KCCUK is pleased to announce the forthcoming author talk with Cho Yeeun about her novel ‘The New Seoul Park Jelly Massacre’, published this month. This is an in-person event at the Korean Cultural Centre with the author Cho Yeeun joining via video-link. Join us to discover more about Yeeun’s inspirations and work.
Set in a mega-sized amusement park, the story depicts a mysterious man sharing his unusual jelly candy with visitors of the park. Drawn to the park by a sense of wanting to be together, the visitors fulfil this wish upon eating the candy, but here the tragedy begins. With her unique brand of quirky, genre fiction-influenced writing, the author crafts a gripping narrative that delves into themes of power, justice, societal divides, the desire for connection and the price we might pay for it.
At New Seoul Park, Korea’s greatest theme park, an enigmatic man tempts visitors with a mysterious jelly candy that promises an unbreakable bond. As the sun beats down on a muggy summer afternoon, a child separated from her disinterested parents, a single mother striving to create a memorable day on a shoestring budget, and a couple on the brink of splitting up, all end up tasting this ominous candy. Little do they know that a sinister force lurks beneath the innocent facade. The sweet and innocent soon turns grotesque as the jelly becomes the catalyst for a sticky, sweet massacre.
Author Cho Yeeun
Cho Yeeun is a previous winner of the Excellence Prize at the 2nd Goldenbough Time Leap Fiction Contest and the Grand Prize at the 4th Kyobo Story Contest. She is also the author of ‘Shift’, ‘Cocktails, Love and Zombies’, and ‘Snowball Drive’.
Moderated by Professor Jieun Kiaer
Jieun Kiaer is the YBM KF Professor of Korean Linguistics at the University of Oxford and has widely published on the Korean language and culture. She is the author of ‘Language of Hallyu: More than Polite’ (Routledge 2023). Currently, she and her team at Oxford are translating scholar chef Seo Yugu’s food encyclopaedia, ‘Jeongjoji’.