Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop

Warning—Spoilers Ahead

I got the recommendation to read Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum from Lilelyah. I have reveled in reading books only based on the suggestions of friends. I would likely not have heard of these novels, and I certainly would never have read them. Thank you to everyone who gives me new ideas.

I believe this book would fall into the category of kūki-kei if it were an anime. That is to say I consider this to be a slice of life story. There is no antagonist, and the plot follows the daily lives of people involved with the bookshop. While this may not sound interesting at first, the wonderful development of the characters really grabs you.

Yeongju

Yeongju is the central character of the story and the owner of the bookshop. We experience the story from her perspective and through the relationships she forms with the other central characters. She started the bookshop after leaving her corporate career because of over-stress and anxiety.

The bookshop was a way for her to come back to her first love: reading. She wanted to build a place where people could feel calm. Yeongju sought to allow people to find a joy in reading similar to hers. Her primary goals were not to become wealthy or shirk responsibility. She wanted to build a welcoming spot for others to find refuge from the stresses of life.

Yeongju struggles with the daily upkeep of running a small business. She had started a blog and a social media page for the bookshop. In trying to maintain the shop's inventory, make daily updates to the social pages, converse with the customers, make coffee, and man the register, she feels overwhelmed.

Minjun

Minjun responds to a help-wanted ad placed by Yeongju. He comes in to be the shop's barista. After a brief interview, Yeongju offers him the position, but she includes a salary that Minjun feels is much too high. Yeongju states she wants him to feel valued and earn enough money to make a living. If he accepts, Minjun will run all aspects of the shop's cafe.

Minjun has struggled with feelings of not living up to his potential. In Korean culture, people would expect him to get excellent marks in school and move on to a well-paying corporate career. He was an excellent student, but despite his efforts, he could not land a career with the prestige that he or his family had expected.

In performing his duties as the manager of the cafe, Minjun becomes acquainted with the owner of a local coffee roaster, Jimi. Minjun spends time at the roaster's office helping select the beans and perfecting his brewing skills to make the best coffee possible for the bookshop. Through his practice, he realizes he can enjoy the process of working and does not have to succeed in the way he had originally planned for his life.

Jimi

Jimi is the owner and proprietress of Goat Beans, Hyunam-dong's local coffee roaster. She becomes a good friend to Yeongju and assists Minjun in perfecting his skills as a barista. Jimi helps Minjun learn how not just to see success or failure in life based solely on success in his career.

Jimi has realized that she is trapped in an unhappy marriage. She refers to her husband only as "that man". She always relates the flaws she sees in the other characters back to her husband. Her fights with her husband often leave her in a foul mood that causes the employees of Goat Beans to be wary of her.

By the end of the novel, she concludes that her relationship is toxic and it would be best for her friends, employees, and herself to get a divorce and find happiness without "that man".

Mincheol, Jungsuh, & Sangsu

Mincheol is a teenager whose mother has asked Yeongju to work with him after school. He has no passion for anything in life. His mother hopes that Yeongju will be able to assist him in finding something that will excite him. He forms strong bonds with the employees of the bookshop, Minjun in particular. Mincheol, in dealing with the others, discovers that just because he hasn't found his passion does not mean he is not capable of the emotion. There is no rush to find joy; his stress about the search may be hindering his goal.

Jungsuh enters the story as a patron of the bookshop who is seeking a calm place to meditate. She concerns herself with not being a nuisance. Jungsuh has left her career as a contract worker to find peace. She grew weary of working diligently for her employer with the promise that strong work would result in her being hired full-time. Despite years of hard work, a permanent position always eluded her. This drove her to severe anger and exhaustion.

She spends most of her time in the bookshop knitting and even donates her wares to Yeongju, who uses them in a promotional giveaway. This is the first time Yeongju attempts an event like this, and the turn-out surprises her. With the success of the crochet scrubby giveaway, Yeongju finds more strategies like this to drive traffic to the bookshop.

Sangsu is a regular customer of the bookshop who reads even more than Yeongju. He steps in towards the latter part of the story when Yeongju is running several events per week on top of the daily business of the bookshop and offers to help, in his own way. Yeongju is once again finding herself stretched to the limit of what she can bear, and accepts his offer.

Sangsu offers to run the register ONLY. He will not help stock nor will he help with the coffee. He will also read any time he is not busy at the register. This is simply his gruff way. Yeongju notices that Sangsu can often persuade customers to purchase more books than she would have been able to, and is grateful for the value he brings to the staff.

Conclusion

As stated at the beginning, this novel is mostly a slice of life story. Throughout it uses excerpts from books that are being featured by the bookshop to address challenges that the employees face.

Overall, the story encourages work-life balance, following your passion, and the importance of friendships. There are many quotes and passages that are profound and I found to be well stated. I think anyone could read this book and come away with something that touched their heart meaningfully. I know I did.

Thank you, Lilelyah, for this recommendation! I would give Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop and eight out of ten. I welcome any feedback or questions. Please drop your thoughts below.