Korean readers eat up new novels

The Korean publishing industry is heating up this summer with new novels by best-selling worldwide authors like Haruki Murakami from Japan, Dan Brown from the U.S. and Jeong Yu-jeong from Korea.

According to the weekly best-sellers’ chart by Yes24, one of the bookstores in Korea, “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage” by Murakami, “Inferno” by Dan Brown, and “28” by Jeong Yu-jeong took first, second and fourth places by the second week of July.

In particular, Korean fans waited long for the new work by Murakami, whose last novel, “1Q84” was released three years ago.

Yes24 said in terms of the e-book best-sellers’ chart, romance novels dominated the list. “Dinner of Married Men” took first and third place right after its release. “Doctor Princess” came in second, while “Obedience” and “The Day We Did It” came in fourth and fifth. Romance novel for adults titled “Castle Where Angels Fall” also did well, coming in sixth.

BY KIM HYUNG-EUN [hkim@joongang.co.kr]