Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop

Kim Minjun is the novel’s deuteragonist. While the narrative begins and ends with Yeongju, Minjun’s role complements her journey. His arc builds the theme of The Search for a New Philosophy of Work.

Before Minjun starts work at the bookshop, he experiences a period of disillusionment with his direction in life. In contrast to Yeongju, whose backstory is revealed late in the novel, Minjun’s backstory is revealed early and provides a critique of work-centered culture. In particular, Minjun’s experience underscores how children are raised to see education as preparation for employment. When Minjun fails to get a job after graduation, he realizes how much of his life he devoted to the dream of employment. He performed well in school not because he was interested in what he was learning, but because he felt he needed to do well to guarantee his professional success. 

When Minjun’s friend, Sungchul, complains that Minjun isn’t adventurous in his aesthetic tastes and watches only blockbusters because of their perceived popularity, Minjun doesn’t immediately admit is that he doesn’t even know what kinds of movies he likes. This shows that he has lived solely for external validation and has lost his connection with himself. He only manages to figure out his preference in movies after he pauses his job hunt and thinks about himself.

After Minjun’s failed job hunt, he decides to slow down and appreciate activities for their own sake. He begins with movies, and this foreshadows his journey with coffee, learning to enjoy the process rather than focusing on validation. Coffeemaking helps Minjun to find a replacement for the paradigm of a work-centered life. While Minjun previously believed that he needed to prepare for happiness and success years in advance, the act of making coffee teaches him to focus on smaller goals and objectives. If he disappoints himself with making one cup, he can always strive to do better with the next one, unlike his previous paradigm in which every successive job rejection made him feel more like a failure. In the present action of the novel, Minjun is reminded of this failure when he talks to his mother, who pressures him to restart his job hunt. Minjun escapes this pressure by spending more time at the bookshop, turning it into a safe space. He also deepens his appreciation for coffee through his friendship with Jimi, the owner of the coffee roaster that supplies Hyunam-dong Bookshop.

Hyun Seungwoo is one of the novel’s major characters. He has his own complete character arc, which he resolves by the end of the novel. The novel additionally follows his perspective at various points, allowing access to his thoughts. Still, he is not as important as Yeongju and Minjun, who dominate the narrative and lead the novel to resolution. Seungwoo also functions as Yeongju’s romantic interest, which helps to define his objective and stakes for the novel.

Seungwoo is initially characterized as a debut author with a strong online following that includes Yeongju. This casts an air of mystique around his character since Yeongju is eager to impress him when she hosts him for a book talk at Hyunam-dong Bookshop. As the novel progresses, however, Hwang demystifies Seungwoo’s character and makes him more relatable by exploring his backstory as an engineer and exposing his anxiety, which clashes with his online persona. Based on his authorial voice, Seungwoo is a sharp and confident speaker, allowing him to convince online readers to take his side in his public dispute with the publishing CEO. Later, Seungwoo reveals that he is often nervous and remorseful of his actions. After the dispute, he refrained from critiquing sentences and accepted the CEO’s invitation to re-edit the book because he felt ashamed to put pressure on the company.

Seungwoo’s character arc revolves around his quest to overcome that anxiety for the sake of his relationship with Yeongju. In the wake of his book talk, Seungwoo finds himself fascinated by Yeongju. The first active choice he makes is to accept her invitation to lead the writing seminars, despite his initial reasoning that the seminar would take up too much of his personal time. The fact that Yeongju speaks to her admiration of Seungwoo’s work before the seminar validates his decision and encourages him to continue pursuing Yeongju. Throughout the second half of the novel, Seungwoo becomes one of Yeongju’s close friends and even offers to help her improve her writing. He nevertheless observes boundaries with Yeongju because he is afraid of offending her and risking their relationship. When Yeongju’s ex-husband’s friend comes to the bookshop, he refrains from asking her what happened because he knows that the friend’s presence affected her emotionally. His presence at the bookshop speaks to his willingness to support her. By the end of the novel, Seungwoo overcomes his anxiety and makes an impassioned argument to accompany her in Berlin, using a mix of logic and emotion to make his case. By appealing to Yeongju’s feelings for him, Seungwoo shows that he has overcome the anxiety that held him back.

Jimi is one of the novel’s supporting characters. She primarily appears in Minjun’s storyline, helping him to progress through the journey to affirm his new direction in life. She is first introduced as Yeongju’s business partner and friend, supplying coffee beans to Hyunam-dong Bookshop through her roaster, Goat Beans. As Minjun spends more time at Goat Beans learning from Jimi, he deepens his appreciation for the art of coffeemaking.

Jimi has a blunt personality, which gives her the confidence to share her frank thoughts with the people she trusts. She demonstrates this early, when she and Yeongju chat about Minjun’s quietness and Yeongju’s self-effacing tendencies. When Minjun starts visiting Goat Beans, the time he spends with Jimi causes her to open up to him about her problems with her husband.

Jimi is trapped in an unhappy marriage and has no affection for her husband. She refers to him exclusively as “that man” and finds ways to connect every character flaw she observes in people back to her husband. It takes her friendship with Minjun for her to realize how unhappy she is, and his advice helps her to realize that her husband resents her success. This drives her to seek a divorce at the end of the novel.