
Cursed Bunny - Reading Guide
Explore the first work of speculative fiction from Korea nominated for the International Booker Prize and discover how Chung addresses the reality of patriarchy and capitalism in modern society.
Shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize. Bora Chung presents a genre-defying collection of short stories, which blur the lines between magical realism, horror and science fiction. Translated by Anton Hur.
Korean author Bora Chung uses elements of the fantastic and surreal to address the very real horrors and cruelties of patriarchy and capitalism in modern society. Anton Hur’s translation skilfully captures the way Chung’s prose effortlessly glides from the terrifying to the wryly humorous. Winner of a PEN/Haim Grant.
About the Author
Bora Chung was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2022. She was born in Seoul in 1976. She has written three novels and three collections of short stories.About the Translator
Anton Hur was born in Sweden in 1981 and raised in Hong Kong, Ethiopia and Thailand - but mostly in Korea, where he has lived for 30 years.Bora’s language is definitely what I enjoyed the most about Cursed Bunny. I loved handling it and seeing it come out in English. She is just so remarkably funny and sensitive and aware and empathetic. She gives equal weight to perfections and flaws. Every one thing has shades of the other.
— Anton Hur, translator of Cursed Bunny
While the stories in Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung blend elements of horror, fantasy and the surreal, each is viscerally rooted in the real fears and pressures of everyday life.
— The 2022 International Booker Prize judges