Capitalists Must Starve : A Novel [Paperback]

From the writer and translator duo ofA Magical Girl Retires, a powerful historical novel about labour activism in Japanese-occupied Korea.

Set against the backdrop of Japanese-occupied Korea,Capitalists Must Starvefollows a sharp-tongued, big-hearted heroine who dares to love, rebel, and carve out space for working-class women in a world determined to silence them. Echoing the unflinching narratives ofAlias Graceand the sweeping historical vision ofPachinko, this feminist historical novel balances raw grit with unexpected tenderness and a defiant streak of dark humour.

A stirring portrait of resistance from below: fierce, funny, and full of fight.

Born in 1989,Park Seolyeonmade her debut by winning the Silcheon Munhak New Writers Prize in 2015. She is the author ofA Magical Girl Retiresamong other novels and short story collections. In 2018, she won the Hankyoreh Literature Prize for her novelCapitalists Must Starve. Her stories have been translated into Japanese, French, German, and English. She currently lives in Seoul.

Anton Hurwas born in Stockholm. He is the author ofToward Eternityand has been nominated for the International Booker Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Dublin Literary Award for his various translations includingLove in the Big Cityby Sang Young Park andA Magical Girl Retiresby Park Seolyeon. He lives in Seoul.

‘World-class translator and author Anton Hur delivers an intelligent, edifying, razor-fine translation of Park Seolyeon’sCapitalists Must Starve. Park’s feminist historical novel, set during Japanese-occupied Korea, urges us to look closely at the words Heinz Insu Fenkl has expressed: “Even when the possibility of death is real, approaching your fear, embracing it, hoping someone might be able to use your dead body as a stepping-stone to mló4