Cursed Bunny

Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize and is the winner of a PEN/Heim Translation Grant.

A woman is haunted by her own bodily waste. A pregnant woman is told she must find a father for her unborn baby or face horrific consequences. A young monster, forced to fight, discovers the extent of his power.

This genre-defying collection of short stories blurs the lines between magical realism, horror, and science fiction. Using elements of the fantastic and surreal, Chung exposes the very real horrors and cruelties of patriarchy and capitalism in modern society, gliding effortlessly from terrifying to wryly humorous in a skilful translation by the acclaimed Anton Hur.

Anton Hur's nimble translation manages to capture the tricky magic of Chung's voice - its wry humour and overarching coolness broken by sudden, thrilling dips into passages of vivid description. Even as Chung presents a catalogue of grotesqueries that range from unsettling to seared-into-the-brain disturbing, her power is in restraint. She and Hur always keep the reader at a slight distance in order for the more chilling twists to land with maximum impact, allowing us to walk ourselves into the trap.

- Violet Kupersmith, The New York Times Book Review

Sharp, wildly inventive, and slightly demented (in the most enjoyable way, of course)... All we can say is buckle in, because when these stories take their horrific turn there's no setting them down.

- Chicago Review of Books

If you were the kind of child who was enthralled by Scary Stories to Read in the Dark, Bora Chung writes for you. Like the work of Carmen Maria Machado and Aoko Matsuda, Chung's stories are so wonderfully, blisteringly strange and powerful that it's almost impossible to put Cursed Bunny down. In short, this collection may, in fact, be a cursed object in the best possible way.

- Kelly Link, bestselling author of Get In Trouble