The Hole
Published on 24. July 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-1-5299-5486-9 (ISBN)
Description
Fall into the chilling and claustrophobic psychological novel and Korean bestseller from the award-winning author, perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, and Olga Ravn.
WINNER OF THE SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD
SOON TO BE A MAJOR FILM STARRING THEO JAMES AND SQUID GAME'S HOYEON
'A superbly insidious and atmospheric chiller about caring and cruelty: grief, isolation, helplessness and existential fear' Guardian
'Korea's answer to Stephen King . . . a thoughtful and elegant exploration of a relationship . . . increasingly unnerving' Observer
'Beautifully haunting... Probably my favourite book I've ever read.' 5-star reader review
Following a devastating car crash that killed his wife, Oghi wakes in hospital to find himself trapped in his own body and under the control of his vengeful mother-in-law as she grieves the loss of her only child.
Isolated from his friends and neglected by his nurse, Oghi's world shrinks to the room he lies in and his memories of his wife, a sensitive woman who found solace in cultivating her garden.
But as Oghi remains alone and paralysed, his mother-in-law is hard at work in the now-abandoned garden, uprooting what her daughter had worked so hard to plant and obsessively digging larger and larger holes...
A bestseller in Korea, The Hole is a superbly crafted and deeply unnerving novel about the horrors of isolation and neglect in all of its banal and brutal forms.
Praise for The Hole
'A gripping read for fans of literary horror' The Bookseller
'Will stay with you long after you turn the last page' Heather Parry, author of Carrion Crow and Orpheus Builds a Girl
'Masterfully unsettling.' Leon Craig, author of Parallel Hells
'Like Hitchcock or Abe, Pyun peers head on into the unnerving depths of human grief' Blake Butler, author of 300,000,000
'A Korean take on Misery' Time
'Suspenseful, eerie and surprisingly profound' Big Issue
'While reading The Hole, you'll find yourself suddenly doubting everything' Kyung-sook Shin, New York Times bestselling author of Please Look After Mother
'A chilling psychological thriller . . . the reader is drawn in deeper with each new revelation' PA Media
WINNER OF THE SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD
SOON TO BE A MAJOR FILM STARRING THEO JAMES AND SQUID GAME'S HOYEON
'A superbly insidious and atmospheric chiller about caring and cruelty: grief, isolation, helplessness and existential fear' Guardian
'Korea's answer to Stephen King . . . a thoughtful and elegant exploration of a relationship . . . increasingly unnerving' Observer
'Beautifully haunting... Probably my favourite book I've ever read.' 5-star reader review
Following a devastating car crash that killed his wife, Oghi wakes in hospital to find himself trapped in his own body and under the control of his vengeful mother-in-law as she grieves the loss of her only child.
Isolated from his friends and neglected by his nurse, Oghi's world shrinks to the room he lies in and his memories of his wife, a sensitive woman who found solace in cultivating her garden.
But as Oghi remains alone and paralysed, his mother-in-law is hard at work in the now-abandoned garden, uprooting what her daughter had worked so hard to plant and obsessively digging larger and larger holes...
A bestseller in Korea, The Hole is a superbly crafted and deeply unnerving novel about the horrors of isolation and neglect in all of its banal and brutal forms.
Praise for The Hole
'A gripping read for fans of literary horror' The Bookseller
'Will stay with you long after you turn the last page' Heather Parry, author of Carrion Crow and Orpheus Builds a Girl
'Masterfully unsettling.' Leon Craig, author of Parallel Hells
'Like Hitchcock or Abe, Pyun peers head on into the unnerving depths of human grief' Blake Butler, author of 300,000,000
'A Korean take on Misery' Time
'Suspenseful, eerie and surprisingly profound' Big Issue
'While reading The Hole, you'll find yourself suddenly doubting everything' Kyung-sook Shin, New York Times bestselling author of Please Look After Mother
'A chilling psychological thriller . . . the reader is drawn in deeper with each new revelation' PA Media
Reviews / Votes
A Korean take on Misery * Time * Metaphorical holes abound in this superbly insidious and atmospheric chiller about caring and cruelty: grief, isolation, helplessness and existential fear * Guardian * Korea's answer to Stephen King . . . a thoughtful and elegant exploration of a relationship . . . increasingly unnerving * Observer * Suspenseful, eerie and surprisingly profound * Big Issue * A gripping read for fans of literary horror * The Bookseller * A chilling psychological thriller . . . the reader is drawn in deeper with each new revelation * PA Media * This book will stay with you long after you turn the last page. A skillful, layered exploration of where horror resides on the narrow terrain between care and cruelty, between love and loathing. * Heather Parry, author of Carrion Crow and Orpheus Builds a Girl * Spare yet viscerally compelling, The Hole seizes you right from the powerful opening scene all the way to its nightmare conclusion. Masterfully unsettling. * Leon Craig, author of Parallel Hells * While reading The Hole, you'll find yourself suddenly doubting everything. * Kyung-sook Shin, New York Times bestselling author of Please Look After Mother * Like Hitchcock or Abe, Pyun peers head on into the unnerving depths of human grief. * Blake Butler, author of 300,000,000 *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Transworld Publishers Ltd
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 215 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
245 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5299-5486-9 (9781529954869)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
07/2025
Transworld Digital
€10.99
Available for download
Persons
Hye-Young Pyun (Author)
Hye-young Pyun was born in 1972 in Seoul and earned her undergraduate degree in creative writing and graduate degree in Korean literature from Hanyang University. Her published works include the short story collections Aoi Garden, To the Kennels, Evening Courtship, and Night Passes; and the novels City of Ash and Red, They Went to the Western Forest, The Law of Lines, The Hole, and Let the Dead. She has received many awards in Korea, including the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award, the Yi Hyo-Seok Literature Prize, the Today's Young Writer Award, the Dong-in Literary Award, the Yi Sang Literary Award, and the Contemporary Literature (Hyundai Munhak) Award. Her novel The Hole was the 2017 winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, and City of Ash and Red was an NPR Great Read. In 2019, she was awarded the Kim Yujeong Literary Award for her short story "Hotel Window". Her short stories have been published in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and Words Without Borders. She currently teaches creative writing at Myongji University and lives in Seoul, Korea.
Sora Kim-Russell (Translator)
Sora Kim-Russell's translations include Un-su Kim's The Plotters; Hwang Sok-yong's At Dusk, which was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize; and Suah Bae's Nowhere to be Found. Her full list of publications can be found at sorakimrussell.com. She lives in Seoul, Korea.
Hye-young Pyun was born in 1972 in Seoul and earned her undergraduate degree in creative writing and graduate degree in Korean literature from Hanyang University. Her published works include the short story collections Aoi Garden, To the Kennels, Evening Courtship, and Night Passes; and the novels City of Ash and Red, They Went to the Western Forest, The Law of Lines, The Hole, and Let the Dead. She has received many awards in Korea, including the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award, the Yi Hyo-Seok Literature Prize, the Today's Young Writer Award, the Dong-in Literary Award, the Yi Sang Literary Award, and the Contemporary Literature (Hyundai Munhak) Award. Her novel The Hole was the 2017 winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, and City of Ash and Red was an NPR Great Read. In 2019, she was awarded the Kim Yujeong Literary Award for her short story "Hotel Window". Her short stories have been published in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and Words Without Borders. She currently teaches creative writing at Myongji University and lives in Seoul, Korea.
Sora Kim-Russell (Translator)
Sora Kim-Russell's translations include Un-su Kim's The Plotters; Hwang Sok-yong's At Dusk, which was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize; and Suah Bae's Nowhere to be Found. Her full list of publications can be found at sorakimrussell.com. She lives in Seoul, Korea.