The Midnight Timetable: From the International Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Cursed Bunny

About the Book

Equal parts bone-chilling, wryly funny and deeply political, The Midnight Timetable is a masterful work of literary horror from one of our time's greatest imaginations. 'I inhaled Bora Chung's book of ghost stories and then slept with the light on!' Avni Doshi, author of Burnt Sugar 'A wild midnight tour of a uniquely brilliant and exquisitely demented world - a world I did not want to leave!' Gerardo Sámano Córdova, author of Monstrilio In a labyrinthine research facility, where those who open the wrong door might find it's disappeared behind them or that the echoing footsteps they're running from are their own, an unnamed protagonist begins their night shift under the watchful eye of the building's enigmatic senior guard. Each evening, as the fluorescent lights flicker and the silence grows heavier, the guard shares another tale of cursed objects and lives unspooled by vengeance, sorrow or revelation. But these are not mere ghost stories. They're warnings. Lessons. Or, perhaps, confessions . . . As the nights stretch on and reality frays, our protagonist starts to suspect that the building itself is alive with malevolent intent and that the objects they guard aren't just cursed. They're waiting. Watching. 'Electrifying. A feast of a book. Strange, hypnotic and audacious.' Irenosen Okojie, author of Curandera 'A fascinating novel of shifting realities centred by a steady, humane heart. Bora Chung is a master of concocting dreamscapes that linger.' Marie-Helene Bertino, author of Beautyland 'These ghost stories . . . mist off the page and leave the real world hazy and askew.' Pemi Aguda, author of Ghostroots

About the Author :

Bora Chung is a writer and translator whose works include the National Book Award finalist and International Booker Prize-shortlisted Cursed Bunny. She has an MA in Russian Studies from Yale University and a PhD in Slavic literature from Indiana University. She has taught Russian language and literature and science fiction at Yonsei University and translates modern literary works from Russian and Polish into Korean.

Anton Hur was born in Stockholm and currently resides in Seoul. He won a PEN Translates grant for his translation of The Underground Village by Kang Kyeong-ae and a PEN/Heim grant for Bora Chung's Cursed Bunny, the latter of which was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.

Review :
South Korean folklore, urban horror stories and surrealism are fused into something truly nightmarish. Clever, scary and wickedly funny. I inhaled Bora Chung's book of ghost stories and then slept with the light on! Like the objects collected in this deliciously haunting book, The Midnight Timetable will absorb you in the shadows of its imagination, marvellous oddness, humour and heart. It's a wild midnight tour of a uniquely brilliant and exquisitely demented world, terrifying and enchanting-a world I did not want to leave! A truly wild and twisted ride into the dark recesses of the human psyche. Bora Chung's unique voice sings with wisdom, truth and humour, wrapped up in bone-chilling allegory. A riveting enchantment of a book. Electrifying. A feast of a book. Strange, hypnotic and audacious. I love the creatures who populate the Haunted Institute of Bora Chung's mind―handkerchiefs with vendettas, jackets that weep in marbles, wounded, oracular sheep. The Midnight Timetable is enigmatic, wild and fun, even while making deep and provocative points about the dark joys suffering makes available. A fascinating novel of shifting realities centred by a steady, humane heart. Bora Chung is a master of concocting dreamscapes that linger. How can Bora Chung tickle me, delight me while dropping me deep into uneasiness? Why am I giggling while looking for new shadows over my shoulder? These ghost stories take what's familiar and give them very human dimensions-a lover's betrayal, a mother's love, a son's greed, or a worker's simple curiosity-so that they mist off the page and leave the real world hazy and askew when we look up. I left this book respecting the untold histories of objects and I will never look at tennis shoes again without thinking of sheep. Beautiful, eerie stories that are unpredictable and sprawl endlessly. The keen insights into a society and the nonstop pacing of the folk tales kept me on the edge of my seat. It is rare that you find a writer so happy to throw caution to the wind and craft stories that feel so new and fresh. If you are looking for something spooky, silly and simultaneously meaningful, The Midnight Timetable is the book for you. Chung's partnership with translator Anton Hur continues to bear fruit here; the stories have a nicely wry style, accessibly rendered. Chung is mordantly eerie and funny. The steady accumulation of cruelty may not be for all readers, but it leaves an unnerving but thrilling impression. Haunting, funny, gross, terrifying-and yet when we reach the end, we just want more. Bora Chung's stories glisten at the border of our weird world, and all our other weird worlds. A truly sublime book. Chung builds out her stories with imagination, absurdity and a dry sense of humor, all applied with X-Acto knife precision. [A] get-under-your-skin collection Frightening, fantastical and oddly funny . . . Absurdist horror with a feminist slant.