Yang Seok-il: Blood and Bones 2 Korean Diaspora Literature

Joe Menosky is a television writer and producer best known for his work within the Star Trek storytelling universe. Mr. Menosky has written for Star Trek: the Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Discovery. Most recently he has written for The Orville and For All Mankind. King Sejong the Great is his first novel.

It is Osaka in the 1930s. Kim Shunpei, a migrant from Jeju Island, works at a fish cake factory and is widely feared for his physical strength and brutality. He moves through life in the only way he knows how: by terrorizing those around him.A bestseller in Japan, this harrowing, kaleidoscopic novel portrays the violent and eventful life of a flawed man modeled after the author's own father.Publisher’s ReviewBlood and Bones, originally published in Japanese in 1998, follows a half-century of the violent, eventful life of migrant worker Kim Shunpei in Osaka. Feared by coworkers, bosses, neighbors, family members, and gangs alike, he moves through life in the only way he knows how: by terrorizing those around him. Yang Seok-il's vivid portrait of Kim Shunpei is modeled after the life of his own father. Built from intimate memories of struggle in the gritty underbelly of Osaka, Yang's harrowing, kaleidoscopic novel depicts how patriarchal violence and restricted life chances can wrack a minority Korean community both during and after Japan's empire.About the AuthorYang Seok-il (b. 1936- )Born in Osaka, Japan, to a couple from Korea’s Jeju Island who settled in Japan during the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula, Yang, whose Japanese name is Yan Sogiru, graduated from Osaka Prefectural Kozu High School and did odd jobs including driving a taxi after a business he pursued failed. His 1980s non-fiction work Takushi doraiba nisshi (Taxi Driver Diary), based on his experience as a cabbie, was made into the 1993 critically acclaimed film All under the Moon. He also won the 1998 Yamamoto Shugoro Prize of Japan for his semi-autobiographical novel Blood and Bones, which was also made into a film released in 2004.About the TranslatorAdhy Kim is a writer, scholar, and teacher of Asian and Asian American literature and culture.ContentsBlood and Bones 1Chapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 9Chapter 10Chapter 11Chapter 12Chapter 13