Cursed Bunny: Stories

SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE AND WINNER OF A PEN/HEIM TRANSLATION GRANT

"Cool, brilliantly demented K-horror--just the way I like it!" --Ed Park, author of Personal Days

"Like the work of Carmen Maria Machado and Aoko Matsuda, Chung's stories are so wonderfully, blisteringly strange and powerful that it's almost impossible to put Cursed Bunny down." ―Kelly Link, bestselling author of Get In Trouble

A stunning, wildly original debut from a rising star of Korean literature--surreal, chilling fables that take on the patriarchy, capitalism, and the reign of big tech with absurdist humor and a (sometimes literal) bite

From an author never before published in the United States, Cursed Bunny is unique and imaginative, blending horror, sci-fi, fairy tales, and speculative fiction into stories that defy categorization. By turns thought-provoking and stomach-turning, here monsters take the shapes of furry woodland creatures and danger lurks in unexpected corners of everyday apartment buildings. But in this unforgettable collection, translated by the acclaimed Anton Hur, Chung's absurd, haunting universe could be our own.

"The Head" follows a woman haunted by her own bodily waste. "The Embodiment" takes us into a dystopian gynecology office where a pregnant woman is told that she must find a father for her baby or face horrific consequences. Another story follows a young monster, forced into underground fight rings without knowing his own power. The titular fable centers on a cursed lamp in the shape of a rabbit, fit for a child's bedroom but for its sinister capabilities.

No two stories are alike, and readers will be torn whether to race through them or savor Chung's wit and frenetic energy on every page. Cursed Bunny is a book that screams to be read late into the night and passed on to the nearest set of hands the very next day.


Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 12/06/2022
Pages: 256
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 7.60h x 5.00w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781643753607


Award: National Book Awards - Nominee


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 10/15/2022
Publishers Weekly 10/17/2022
Shelf Awareness 12/30/2022

About the Author
Bora Chung has written three novels and three collections of short stories. She has an MA in Russian and East European area studies from Yale University and a PhD in Slavic literature from Indiana University. She has taught Russian language and literature and science fiction studies at Yonsei University and translates modern literary works from Russian and Polish into Korean.

Anton Hur was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He won a PEN Translates award for Kang Kyeong-ae's The Underground Village and his translation of Sang Young Park's Love in the Big City was longlisted for the Booker International Prize in 2022. He lives in Seoul.