Author Yun Ko-eun's novel "The Disaster Tourist" on July 1 won in the Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger category of the CWA Daggers awarded by the U.K.'s Crime Writers' Association. (Literature Translation Institute of Korea)

By Lee Hana

Author Yun Ko-eun's novel "The Disaster Tourist" on July 1 won the Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger award at the 2021 CWA Daggers of the U.K.'s Crime Writers' Association (CWA).

Yun, who took part in the online awards ceremony with her translator Lizzie Buehler, said in her acceptance speech that she was surprised to hear her name called in a moment that "felt like finding a wormhole to another dimension." 

"I'm willing to dive into this fantastic wormhole and write even more freely from now on," she added. 

Her novel is about Yona, a programming coordinator who works at a travel agency specializing in package holidays to destinations ravaged by tsunamis, hurricanes and other natural disasters. The story unfolds when Yona is sent to a desert sinkhole on the remote island Mui.

The book was published in English last year and has received positive reviews from English-speaking readers and foreign media. It was included on Time magazine's list of "12 New Books You Should Read in August" last year, while The Guardian called it "an entertaining eco-thriller that sets out to illuminate the way climate change is inextricably bound up with the pressures of global capitalism."

The CWA Daggers, celebrating the best in crime writing in 11 categories including fiction and nonfiction, have been awarded by the CWA since 1955. 

The Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger is a category recognizing superb crime novels not originally written in English. This year, Yun was the only author from Asia among six shortlisted nominees including Fredrik Backman (Sweden) and Roxanne Bouchard (Canada). 

Yun is also the first Korean to win in this category, as previous winners of were mostly European including Hannelore Cayre (2020) of France and Henning Mankell (2018) of Sweden. 

Congratulating the author-translator duo on their win, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hwang Hee said, "This is a result of Yun's immense passion for her work and Buehler's constant effort to spread Korean literature overseas. I look forward to their future contributions in sharing Korean literature with the world."

hlee10@korea.kr