Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop

Originally published in 2022, Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop is a novel by Korean author Hwang Bo-reum. The novel is Hwang’s debut and falls under the genre of healing fiction. It draws from her reflections on quitting her job as a software engineer and becoming a writer. After winning an e-book contest on the Korean literary platform Brunch, the novel was published and became an overnight global sensation, selling translation rights in nine territories. The English translation of the novel was published in 2024.

The novel centers around Yeongju, the owner of the titular bookshop, and the community of people who find comfort in the space. This includes the bookshop café barista Minjun, an anxious author named Seungwoo, and the knitting enthusiast Jungsuh. Throughout their time together, the characters share insightful truths about the philosophy of work, passion as a motivating life force, and the value of community for personal development.

This study guide refers to the Kindle edition of the novel, translated into English by Shanna Tan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2024.

Content Warning: The source material and guide include depictions of emotional abuse, mental illness, and substance use.

Plot Summary

The novel introduces the Hyunam-dong Bookshop through the characters of Lee Yeongju and Kim Minjun. Yeongju founded the bookshop because of her lifelong love for books. It is also hinted that in the first days of the bookshop, Yeongju was recovering from a traumatic life situation that she walked away from. Meanwhile, Minjun is the bookshop café barista, who comes at the start of each day to help Yeongju open the shop. Aside from Yeongju, Minjun forms a close relationship with Jimi, the owner of the coffee roaster that supplies the bookshop.

The bookshop is in its second year when the novel begins. Although Yeongju anticipated that the bookshop would not last longer than two years, she is beginning to consider new strategies that will allow the store to flourish in its prospective final year. So far, the bookstore’s biggest event is the bookseller-hosted book talks, in which she invites authors to discuss their work and elaborate on their writing. Yeongju turns to the bookshop’s community of regular customers seeking new ideas to drive community engagement. A regular customer named Jungsuh donates her collection of crochet scrubbies to the bookshop, and Yeongju uses these to drive a promotional giveaway that successfully results in new customers. Another regular customer named Heejoo asks Yeongju to help her teenage son, Mincheol, develop an interest in literature when he expresses a lack of direction in life.

The novel reveals that Minjun took the barista job after he became disillusioned with his initial life plan. Minjun was a top student at school but failed to get a job despite working hard and excelling at his studies. After two years of applying unsuccessfully for jobs, Minjun abandoned his life plan, deciding that he no longer had the energy to become a corporate employee. When Minjun answered Yeongju’s ad seeking a barista, he was surprised to learn that Yeongju would be paying him far above the standard rate. Although Minjun becomes is happy with his work at the bookshop, his mother pesters him to continue his job search, and this sends him into an emotional spiral. Minjun starts spending more time at the bookshop to avoid going home. Yeongju encourages him to live for himself, declaring it is better to live according to his hopes and dreams rather than the expectations of others.

The novel also reveals that Yeongju’s grief is connected to her divorce, after which she harbored feelings of guilt. Jimi and Jungsuh help Yeongju realize that her imperfections are a sign that she is a normal person and that she can dedicate herself to her passions to rebuild her self-esteem. Yeongju soon invites Hyun Seungwoo, an author she admires, to give a talk at the bookshop. Although she is nervous about impressing Seungwoo, Seungwoo is captivated by her questions. He continues to think about Yeongju many days after the book talk.

As Minjun gets closer to Jimi, he learns that she is deeply unhappy in her marriage. Still reckoning with the growing distance between himself and his family, Minjun advises Jimi to consider living apart from her husband if he doesn’t make her happy anymore. Later, Yeongju hosts a book talk in which the members discuss their ideas around work, which strongly resonate with Minjun’s feelings of burnout and disillusionment. This ultimately restores his sense of purpose.

Yeongju tries to expand her bookshop space for more book clubs and events. She also invites Seungwoo to lead a series of writing seminars. He initially considers declining because he does not feel knowledgeable enough to discuss the topic, but then he accepts because he is eager to see Yeongju again. The writing seminar is so successful that it leads to a second run. Yeongju also starts writing a newspaper column, which she is nervous about. Seungwoo offers to edit her writing, so she spends more time with him. He also expresses his support for Yeongju’s personal quest for happiness.

Yeongju invites Jungsuh to spend time with her and Jimi at her apartment. Jungsuh opens up about her past as a contract salary worker who became frustrated with her companies’ failure to make her a permanent employee. She reveals how she turned to hobbies like knitting and crochet as a way to manage her anger in the wake of quitting her job.

Yeongju’s growing popularity in the community draws many aspiring booksellers to seek advice from her. Seungwoo starts spending more time at the bookshop, where he advises Mincheol to appreciate the slow pace of life and find an interest that truly excites him. Meanwhile, Minjun realizes how much satisfaction he derives from the act of making good coffee.

The bookshop regulars are intrigued when a strange man comes looking for Yeongju one day. Yeongju steps out with him for two hours, after which she informs Seungwoo that the man was a friend of her ex-husband, Chang-in. The novel reveals that Yeongju’s divorce was precipitated by Yeongju’s burnout at work. Chang-in’s failure to sympathize with Yeongju’s feelings drove her decision to seek divorce. The friend who came by, Taewoo, heard about the success of Yeongju’s bookshop and passed along Chang-in’s regards, indicating that Chang-in no longer bears any ill will against Yeongju for seeking divorce. This gives Yeongju the closure she needs to move on from her past.

Minjun reunites with his college friend, Sungchul, when Sungchul moderates a film screening at the bookshop. While catching up, Minjun shares that he has found work that suits his life, rather than reshaping his life to fit the demands of a particular job. 

Yeongju finally registers Seungwoo’s feelings for her but doesn’t feel ready to enter a relationship because she is afraid of hurting him. Seungwoo decides to leave things as they are between them, afraid of pushing her away by pursuing her too forcefully. When Yeongju consults Jimi and Jungsuh about the situation, they help her to realize that she has feelings for Seungwoo as well.

Yeongju invites Minjun to become a permanent employee at the bookshop, realizing that the bookshop will outlast the initial two-year deadline she anticipated for its closing. She rationalizes that she wants to keep committing herself to the bookshop because her interactions with the people there actively make her a better person. She carries out a plan to improve business: She decides to retain her trustworthy employees, travel abroad to seek inspiration from other long-running independent bookshops, and remove all bestsellers from the shop inventory, seeking to give exposure to lesser-known writers and books. After she embarks on her trip, Seungwoo calls to ask if he can join her in Berlin. Yeongju isn’t sure at first, but she eventually accepts.

The novel concludes by describing the bookshop one year later. Mincheol is now a part-time employee, having decided to forego college. He participates with the other bookshop staff in a monthly book club meeting focused on staff reads. Following her travels, Yeongju commits herself to the third part of her business plan—getting rid of all best-selling books— believing it is the key to sustaining the bookshop’s unique character. She is happy that her life orbits the bookshop and brings her into regular contact with the people she loves.