“If people started to believe that there’s something in life that only people who read can discover, stories in this world that only people who read can tell, wouldn’t more of them be seduced to peel back the pages of a book?”
A sweet and tender tale of a neighborhood bookstore and the people who give it life, "Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop" is a book to escape the headlines with.
Documenting the ripple effects of a Seoul bookshop with soul, Hwang Bo-Reum explores the importance of neighborhood and community -- and what's possible when small-business owners decide to value connection over commerce.
“Ideas like ‘team’ and ‘family’ function to reframe the workplace as a field of ethical rather than economic obligation, binding workers more tightly to the goals of the organisation.”
The author's cast of characters are all struggling with identity, purpose, and the pursuit of happiness, and finding each other in the construct of a bookstore helps them find the answers -- fleeting though they may be -- they need in the moment.
"Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop" is an endearing book with a big heart, a quick read that will leave you smiling without realizing why.
“Isn’t that what life is about? Forging forward with the answer you have – stumbling along the way and picking yourself up – only to one day realise that the answer you've held on to for a long time is not the right one. When that happens, it’s time to look for the next answer. That’s how ordinary folks, like herself, live. Over our life span, the right answer will keep changing.”