My Very Last Possession and Other Stories

This anthology of ten short stories is written by one of Korea's foremost living writers. In this collection, Pak offers a searching woman's perspective on the radical changes in Korean family structures and social values, exposing the cruelty and hypocrisy of Korea's Confucian traditions that have subjugated women for centuries. The anthology depicts the trials of the Korean War and the subsequent three decades of upheaval during which Korea was transformed from a military dictatorship and an agriculturally-based society to an urban industrialized, albeit troubled, democracy. Pak's novels have sold millions of copies in Korea, where she is praised as a masterful realist.