50
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Featured Preorders
    • Award Winners
    • Audio Books
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • 50 Books for 50 Years
    • 25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Journals and Notebooks
    • socks
    • Games
  • Sell Books
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store

Don't Miss

  • Spring Sale: 25 Select Fiction and Nonfiction Books
  • Powell's Staff Top Fives
  • Powell's Author Events
  • Oregon Battle of the Books
  • Audio Books

Visit Our Stores


Renee Macalino Rutledge: Powell's Q&A: Renee Macalino Rutledge, author of 'One Hundred Percent Me' (0 comment)
Could you describe your latest book, One Hundred Percent Me?
A little girl is used to hearing questions about her looks all the time. "Where are you from?" "What are you?" These questions are a constant reminder from others that she is different. As she embraces her identity and culture, she teaches others that she belongs, that the differences they notice are part of what make her unique, special, and herself....
Read More»
  • Kelsey Ford: Celebrate Short Story Month: 7 Recommendations Based on 7 Collections We Love (0 comment)
  • Keith Mosman: Powell's Picks Spotlight: Jacqueline Woodson and Leo Espinosa's 'The World Belonged to Us' (0 comment)

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

Bluebeards First Wife

by Ha Seong-nan and Janet Hong
Bluebeards First Wife

  • Comment on this title
  • Synopses & Reviews

ISBN13: 9781948830171
ISBN10: 1948830175



All Product Details

View Larger ImageView Larger Images
Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$15.95
New Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
1Burnside
3Cedar Hills
20Local Warehouse

Staff Pick

The new collection of short stories from Korean author Ha Seong-nan, Bluebeard's First Wife (translated from the Korean by Janet Hong), delights and disquiets as much as its exceptional predecessor, Flowers of Mold. Featuring 11 new stories, Ha again offers a selection of short fiction where things are frequently more ominous than they first appear. With their seedy underbellies, a readerly presumption of intentions dastardly (or worse), and very real human yearnings, Ha's tales so effortlessly, so beautifully blend the macabre and the mundane. Recommended By Jeremy G., Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

Disasters, accidents, and deaths abound in Bluebeard's First Wife.

A woman spends a night with her fiancé and his friends, and overhears a terrible secret that has bound them together since high school. A man grows increasingly agitated by the apartment noise made by a young family living upstairs and arouses the suspicion of his own wife when the neighbors meet a string of unlucky incidents. A couple moves into a picture-perfect country house, but when their new dog is stolen, they become obsessed with finding the thief, and in the process, neglect their child.

Ha's paranoia-inducing, heart-quickening stories will have you reconsidering your own neighbors.

Review

“This beautiful collection of short stories takes us into the dark side of Seoul’s suburbia, where petty resentments flare into unpredictable and shocking violence, and momentary lapses have long-lasting implications. Ha Seong-nan stunned me with her debut collection, Flowers of Mold, and her second set of stories to reach the US promises to be just as wondrous a combination of the horrifying and the banal.” Molly Odintz, CrimeReads

Review

"Ha's outstanding collection delivers heavy doses of guilt, hope, and pain....Dark, strange, and simultaneously cohesive and diverse, these stories show a superb writer in full force." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Review

"Despite a significant body count, Ha's provocative narratives never devolve into the maudlin, showcasing instead sly moments of macabre fascination and startling dark comedy." Terry Hong, Booklist (Starred Review)

Review

"In stark, unflinching prose, Ha plumbs feelings of isolation in a modern world in which characters often find themselves bent under the force of traditional expectations, with new dangers looming every day. This is a uniformly captivating collection of stories that could be incidents from a local paper, but which are no less haunting for it."  Kristen Allen-Vogel, Shelf Awareness

Synopsis

A Publishers Weekly Top Ten Book of 2020

Disasters, accidents, and deaths abound in Bluebeard's First Wife. A woman spends a night with her fianc and his friends, and overhears a terrible secret that has bound them together since high school. A man grows increasingly agitated by the noise made by a young family living in the apartment upstairs and arouses the suspicion of his own wife when the neighbors meet a string of unlucky incidents. A couple moves into a picture-perfect country house, but when their new dog is stolen, they become obsessed with finding the thief, and in the process, neglect their child. The paranoia-inducing, heart-quickening stories in Ha's follow-up to the critically acclaimed Flowers of Mold will have you reconsidering your own neighbors.


About the Author

Ha Seong-nan is the author of five short story collections — including Bluebeard's First Wife and Flowers of Mold — and three novels. Over her career, she's received a number of prestigious awards, such as the Dong-in Literary Award in 1999, Hankook Ilbo Literary Prize in 2000, the Isu Literature Prize in 2004, the Oh Yeong-su Literary Award in 2008, and the Contemporary Literature (Hyundae Munhak) Award in 2009.

Janet Hong is a writer and translator based in Vancouver, Canada. Her work has appeared in Literary Hub, Asia Literary Review, Words Without Borders, and the Korea Times. Her other translations include Han Yujoo's The Impossible Fairy Tale and Ancco's Bad Friends.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Be the first to share your thoughts on this title!




Product Details

ISBN:
9781948830171
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
06/16/2020
Publisher:
Open Letter Books
Pages:
243
Height:
.80IN
Width:
5.40IN
Translator:
Janet Hong
Author:
Janet Hong

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$15.95
New Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
1Burnside
3Cedar Hills
20Local Warehouse
Used Book Alert for book Receive an email when this ISBN is available used.
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

  • Help
  • Guarantee
  • My Account
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Security
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Shipping
  • Sitemap
  • © 2022 POWELLS.COM Terms

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##