Off the Page Podcast

This week, Michelle and Sewon talk about the Naver Webtoon series 저궤도인간 (Low Orbit Human) by 조은영 (Eunyoung Jo). Low Orbit Human follows 재열(Jaeyeol), an aspiring writer who, after compromising with the realities of life, works as a part-time creative writing lecturer at a university. Struggling just to keep his head above water, Jaeyeol is suddenly presented with an opportunity he simply...

This week, Michelle and Sewon dive into Taiwan Travelogue by Taiwanese author Yang Shuang-zi, winner of the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature and the 2026 International Booker Prize. Curious why it took them two full weeks to get through this relatively short novel? Stay tuned to find out! - Coming Up Next: Low Orbit Human (저궤도인간) by Jo Eunyoung (조은영)

This week, Michelle and Sewon take another break from talking about books (sorry, we need one more week before diving into Taiwan Travelogue) and instead share stories and reflections from their everyday lives. Although Michelle meets new people through her swimming classes and Sewon through her yoga classes, neither of them tends to strike up conversations with fellow participants. Could this be...

This week, Michelle and Sewon dive into Eduardo Mendoza’s delightfully eccentric novel No Word from Gurb, a story that follows an alien visitor searching for his missing companion on Earth. Blending science fiction with sharp satire, the novel paints a humorous portrait of Barcelona in the lead-up to the 1992 Olympics, capturing the city’s chaos, contradictions, and the wonderfully absurd lives of...

This week, Michelle and Sewon discuss Osamu Dazai (太宰 治)'s No Longer Human (人間失格, 인간 실격). Although Michelle is reading the novel for the first time and Sewon has read it twice, both were intrigued by the fact that someone in the novel describes Yozo as being like "God." Was Yozo weak, gentle, manipulative, or simply misunderstood? A people-pleaser or a narcissist? Join Michelle and Sewo...

This week, Michelle and Sewon take a break from talking about books and instead share thoughts and stories from their everyday lives. Michelle talks about heading back to the office to continue working after an outside appointment this week — a glimpse of her ever-diligent personality, which contrasts with Sewon’s comparatively spontaneous approach to the podcast. Meanwhile, Sewon announces that s...

This week, Michelle and Sewon talk about the 루리 (LULY)’s picture book 긴긴밤 (The Longest Night). In this episode, we talk about The Longest Night by LULY. This is a quiet yet deeply moving story about survival, grief, and the fragile connections that keep us going. Through the journey of unlikely companions crossing a long and lonely night together, the novel gently asks what it means to endure...

⚠️ Quick Note from Sewon This week’s episode is in Korean. I was simply too exhausted to record in English this time 😂 But no worries, we’ll be back in English starting next week! This week, Michelle and Sewon review Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary. As the sun begins to lose its energy and Earth faces an extinction-level crisis, an ordinary middle school science teacher named Ryland Grace wakes up...

This week, Michelle and Sewon talk about the second half of Ye Soyeon (예소연)’s short story collection "Love and Flaws" (사랑과 결함). We dive into the latter five stories, where the idea of family—its structure and boundaries. While individuals are inevitably influenced by the societies they belong to, within the intimate space of family, they often reveal positions that differ from th...

This week, Michelle and Sewon talk about Ye Soyeon (예소연)'s short story collection "Love and Flaws" (사랑과 결함). The characters in this collection hurt one another in the name of love. Rather than offering something sweet or comforting, these stories confront us with the side of love we'd often rather avoid. They explore the "flaws" that inevitably surface when we love someone, the parts of ou...

A young writer with a remarkable talent is suddenly arrested without explanation. Soon after, his brother, who struggles with cognitive impairment, is also brought in for interrogation. Why? A series of child murders has been carried out in ways disturbingly similar to the stories the writer has written. Who is responsible for these killings? And why did the writer feel compelled to create such da...

This week, Michelle and Sewon discuss Soft Burial by Fang Fang. The novel explores the tragedy that unfolds within two landlord families during China’s land reform period, as well as the life of a protagonist who, burdened by deep trauma, loses her memories of the past. Through her story and those of the people around her, the novel portrays how individuals lived through that turbulent era. Moving...

This week, Michelle and Sewon take a closer look at the Netflix original The Art of Sarah (레이디 두아)—a story of a woman who, driven by circumstance, reinvents herself through multiple identities in a relentless pursuit of success. The series explores the tension between opposites—real and fake, light and darkness—revealing a character who is constantly pulled between what is seen and what lies...

This week, Michelle and Sewon talk about Gabriel García Márquez’s "No One Writes to the Colonel" and Kurt Vonnegut’s "Slaughterhouse-Five." The two novels confront the brutal realities of war, the lingering pain carried by those who survive it, and the profound sense of life’s fragility and absurdity—all expressed through remarkably concise and restrained prose. Although these books were published...

* 삶의 경험이 쌓이면서 원한의 무가치함을 깨달았기 때문이다. The more I have lived, the clearer it has become that a life filled with hate and anger is not one worth living. 因為從更多的生活經驗中, 我逐漸認識到,懷著怨恨的人生是不值得過的。 * This week, Michelle and Sewon talk about the book called “I Deliver Parcels in Beijing” by Hu Anyan. This memoir follows a young man in China who moves through...

This week, Michelle and Sewon talk about 김애란 (Kim Ae-ran)’s short story collection 안녕이라 그랬어 (They Said "Annyeong"). Acclaimed as “a work that sharply demonstrates a distinctive ability to capture the particles of emotion drifting through social spaces and render them with clarity,” 안녕이라 그랬어 (They Said "Annyeong) brings together seven short stories that construct a richly layered w...

This week, Michelle and Sewon talk about the Japanese horror novel “About a Place in the Kinki Region,” comparing Japanese and Korean ghosts and sharing their thoughts on the book. They also reflect on their weekend experiences, with Michelle attending the play “살아있는 자를 수선하기 (Repairing the Living)” and Sewon visiting the 국립부여박물관 (Buyeo National Museum) to see the 백제금동대향로 (G...

Two Korean colleagues, Michelle and Sewon, are starting a podcast! Each week, we share a bit about our everyday lives and talk about what we’ve been reading lately. We’re not entirely sure how our conversations will go, but we’re giving it a try and seeing what happens!