Meeting at the Bookshop
On 13 July, Hwang and Tan met with close to 100 fans at the Meet & Greet event held at POPULAR Bras Basah Complex. As Hwang shared anecdotes from her writing journey, the crowd reciprocated with deeply insightful questions. Some were curious about her choice of setting while others asked about her creative undertaking in developing each character. Translated in real-time by Tan, these candid conversations gave the attendees a peek into the author’s mind and the cultural references that inspired her to create this slice-of-life novel.

During the book signing, seated guests were given priority access to get their copies signed. While up close and personal, many readers took the chance to share with Hwang and Tan how deeply they related to the characters in the novel and even shared intimate stories from their own lives that helped them relate to the book. Much to Hwang’s delight, a fan also gifted her a jar of kaya.

In her parting message, Hwang shared that time spent with readers is always precious to her, and this is especially true when she is in a different country and the readers are reading a translated version of the book. This has been an unforgettable experience for her and she hopes that readers share her sentiments. For a novel about conversations to be had within the safe space of a bookshop, it was a fitting end to the event.

In Conversation With Hwang
On top of the event, POPCLUB also took the opportunity to speak more intimately with Hwang on the finer details of her novel. For those who were regrettably unable to make it to the event, be sure to read on for more nuggets of information, as translated by Tan.

Q What made you decide to write a novel?
I started out as an essayist and for a few years, I was exclusively writing in that genre. When I finally published my first essay collection, it went under the radar and while I was hoping to follow up with a second collection, none of the publishers I’d submitted to was interested in my manuscript. Things didn’t seem to be working out, but I still have a huge desire in me to write. Yet, writing essays was becoming somewhat stressful to me. One day, I decided to switch genres and attempt to write a novel. And that’s Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.

Q Why did you choose a bookshop as the main setting of the story? Does it have any special significance to you?
As I was writing the novel, what I really wanted to focus on was the conversations between characters. Not small talk, but the kind of deep conversations about our inner thoughts and feelings that we find hard to talk about. I’m not sure about other cultures, but in Korea, it is not easy to have such conversations. Even between close friends, we don’t ask questions like ‘Do you think there’s meaning in life?’. However, I think all of us would’ve thought about these questions at some point — Is there meaning to my life? Have others already found theirs in life? If so, what is it?

I haven’t had many chances to have such conversations and perhaps that’s why I hope that the characters in my novel will be able to do so. I started thinking about what’s a good place to have such conversations and I’m reminded of the book club meetings I’ve attended. By using books as a medium, conversations about topics we find hard to broach with friends or family seem possible. That’s why I chose a bookshop as the main setting, with the hope that a space filled with books can forge connections between people.

Q Have there been comments from readers that surprised you or made an impression on you?
Yes, there was an episode that made a deep impression. At a book talk, a mother came up to me and said that her son, who was in secondary school, was suffering from lethargy. But after reading my novel, he started to fold his bedding in the morning without being told. And he passed the novel to his mother and asked her to read it too. The book talk was on a school day morning, so the mother came on behalf of his son to get his copy signed. For a child with lethargy to start folding his bedding in the morning is a significant change and it left a deep impression on me.

Q What do you hope readers will take away after reading this book?
This is a difficult question. I’d like to quote from something I’ve read. To the question of what’s the novel’s message, the author answered that the message is written in the novel, from the first sentence to the last sentence. I think the author meant that it’s quite difficult to sum it up neatly in a sentence. But if I have to come up with an answer, I’d say that if one day, you want to pause and take a break, don’t be too hard on yourself — don’t feel guilty about having such thoughts, or wonder why you can’t keep striving forward like others — and simply take the break you need. I think that’s the message I want to tell the readers.

Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop is available at all POPULAR Bookstores.