Park Han-sol reports on Korea's financial regulators, along with fintech and insurance. She previously wrote about the art world, from biennales and exhibitions to fairs and auctions, with a focus on Seoul and the figures shaping the scene. Before joining The Korea Times, she spent a year at ABC News' Seoul bureau, contributing to coverage of major Asia-Pacific events.
Kim Young-ha's 'Diary of a Murderer' wins German literary award
Author Kim Young-ha speaks during a press conference in Seoul, Feb. 20. / Yonhap
By Park Han-sol
By Park Han-sol
Best-selling author Kim Young-ha's novel “Diary of a Murderer” won the German Prize for Crime Fiction, Monday, local time.
The crime thriller was translated into German earlier this year through sponsorship of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea).
The German Prize for Crime Fiction, or the Deutscher Krimi Preis, is the country's longest-running and most prestigious prize for the genre, awarded by the Bochum Crime Archive since 1985.
Every year, a jury of literary scholars, crime thriller critics and booksellers selects three winners each for the national and international categories based on content and literary skills. Winners are announced online with no public award ceremony.
“Diary of a Murderer” was third in the international category.
“It's a deep, dark comedy reflecting on life and death,” Sonja Hartl, a journalist and one of the award judges, was quoted as saying by the official website.
“As the book comments on the status of art and satirizes the tropes about serial killer narratives, a gradual dissolution of the protagonist takes place. Very, very worth reading!”
The grim, provoking narrative follows a series of journal entries and notes that Kim Byeong-su ― a former serial killer aging with Alzheimer's disease ― writes to himself. As the embodiment of an unreliable narrator, Kim is seized with concerns that his adoptive daughter Eun-hui's boyfriend is another serial killer and sets his sights on using his old skills to commit one final act that will end it all.
As the plot progresses, readers come to face his psychological deterioration and confusion and begin to wonder who they can really trust.
The German cover of "Diary of a Murderer" by Kim Young-ha. / Courtesy of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea
The book was also adapted into a film of the same title in 2017, starring the veteran actor Sol Kyung-gu as Kim.
Kim Young-ha has now joined a group of Korean recipients of prestigious international literary awards this year. These include Baek Hee-na, winner of the world's largest children's literature prize, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, who won the Harvey Award for the Best International Book.
Poet Kim Yi-deum's “Hysteria” also became the first work to win both the 2020 U.S. National Translation Award and the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Award, while Cho Nam-joo's “Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982” made the New York Times' 100 Notable Books of 2020.