Visitors look at the works of Nobel Prize-winning author Han Kang at the booth of the Korean Cultural Center (KCC) in Argentina at this year's Buenos Aires International Book Fair held at the convention center La Rural in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The event was held from April 23 to May 11. (KCC in Argentina)
By Hong Angie
Domestic literature saw record sales last year in showing the emergence of a sustainable global readership beyond periodic sparks of global attention.
The Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on July 28 in a report said 1,026 Korean literary titles were translated and published in 40 languages from 2021-25, with cumulative sales of 3.58 million copies. The figure was up over 900,000 copies from 2.68 million from the previous five years as reported last year.
Annual sales abroad approached 1.2 million copies for the second consecutive year with 1,197,329 in 2024 and 1,197,557 last year.
The institute said, "This performance shows the formation of a broad readership across language regions instead of sole dependence on specific bestsellers or the buzz surrounding a Nobel Prize in Literature winner."
"We Do Not Part," a novel about the 1948-49 uprising on Jeju Island by 2024 Nobel laureate Han Kang, posted the highest overseas sales with some 300,000 copies from 2023-25 in 13 countries including the U.K. and France.
The global reach of the country's bestsellers has also made huge strides. Last year, 50 translated titles each sold over 5,000 copies abroad, with 28 of them surpassing 10,000.
Seven titles were consistent sellers globally with over 4,000 copies per year from 2023-25. They include the English-language edition of Han's "Greek Lessons," Russian-language version of Sohn Won-pyung's "The Majestic Fox Tail 1" and Spanish-language edition of Keum-suk Gendry-Kim's graphic novel "Grass."
Works of fiction with healing messages of rest, comfort and solidarity against the backdrop of daily settings also saw remarkable success overseas.
Hwang Bo-reum's "Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop" sold 88,000 copies in six languages and Kim Ho-yeon's "The Second Chance Convenience Store" 66,000 in nine. You Yeong-gwang's "The Rainfall Market," whose English-language version came out in 2024, sold 16,000 within two years of publication.
LTI Korea President Chon Sooyoung said, "Maintaining annual overseas sales of 1.2 million copies for two consecutive years and surpassing 1,000 in the number of supported titles show how the global expansion of Korean literature is built on a solid readership base instead of being just a temporary phenomeon."
shong9412@korea.kr
