At Night He Lifts Weights

At Night He Lifts Weights

$16.95

Kang Young-Sook

Translated from the Korean by Janet Hong

A disquieting vision of ecological dystopia in a collection by a major Korean writer.

An artist is plagued by desire for her mysterious double as disease spreads through an uncanny suburban landscape. An elderly woman suspects the old man who lifts weights in her neighborhood playground of being responsible for a spate of murders. While elsewhere, a woman who believes she’s been exposed to radioactive radiation inherits a warehouse where those fleeing the city can store their possessions.

Beneath the calm surface of the stories collected here, Kang Young-sook offers a disquieting vision of a society grappling with ecological catastrophe and unplaceable forms of loss.

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Praise for At night he lifts weights:

"This powerful collection strikingly depicts alienation, catastrophic loss, and disaster in ravaged landscapes....Young-sook’s perceptive stories provide an unwavering and honest gaze at human nature."—Publishers Weekly

There stories are populated by isolated characters who exist in crumbling worlds sometimes governed by the logic of dreams…but the malaise dissolves once the characters attempt to connect. “—The New Yorker

“These stories about environmental and social failure remind us that the dystopian future we fear is already here…With Kang holding the hammer, this collection lists to the side of atomization and desolation.”—Kirkus Reviews

"Much as the title of this collection evokes a kind of physical exertion, so too do the stories within hum with a visceral quality."—Tobias Carroll, Words Without Borders

"Perceptive and subversive, the stories in At Night He Lifts Weights vary in tone and genre, but each is singularly captivating, swirling around themes of loss — ecological destruction, loneliness, and death. Each has a subtle illusion of calm that conceals what lies below in the unnerving depths."—Pierce Alquist, BookRiot