Bluebeard's First Wife, Paperback/Seong-Nan Ha

Disasters, accidents, and deaths abound in Bluebeard's First Wife . A woman spends a night with her fianc and his friends, and overhears a terrible secret that has bound them together since high school. A man grows increasingly agitated by the apartment noise made by a young family living upstairs and arouses the suspicion of his own wife when the neighbors meet a string of unlucky incidents. A couple moves into a picture-perfect country house, but when their new dog is stolen, they become obsessed with finding the thief, and in the process, neglect their child. Ha's paranoia-inducing, heart-quickening stories will have you reconsidering your own neighbors. About the Author Ha Seong-nan is the author of five short story collections--including Bluebeard's First Wife and Flowers of Mold --and three novels. Over her career, she's received a number of prestigious awards, such as the Dong-in Literary Award in 1999, Hankook Ilbo Literary Prize in 2000, the Isu Literature Prize in 2004, the Oh Yeong-su Literary Award in 2008, and the Contemporary Literature (Hyundae Munhak) Award in 2009. Janet Hong is a writer and translator based in Vancouver, Canada. Her work has appeared in Literary Hub , Asia Literary Review , Words Without Borders , and the Korea Times . Her other translations include Han Yujoo's The Impossible Fairy Tale and Ancco's Bad Friends .