What do you think?
Rate this book
Swell
Each story in Swell launches from the common but pivotal moments that determine the course of everyday life, but they’re often filtered through the perspective of someone else: documentarians, novelists, storytellers, gossips. Then, as the stories build atop one another and intertwine, they begin to shift and destabilize. Characters return but their histories are changed, alternate timelines open, and no one is ever who they were.
Like an optical illusion this book offers two complete pictures. Viewed as individual stories, contemporary Korean lives are rendered with sensitivity and realism—relationships tatter and bereaved loved-ones search for ways to move on. Viewed as a complete collection, though, a stranger narrative emerges, in which there is perhaps some invisible logic behind everything, incomprehensible to us. Wholly original, Swell, translated by Janet Hong, is a book full of trap doors, hidden passageways, and the unsolvable mystery behind everyday life.
Like an optical illusion this book offers two complete pictures. Viewed as individual stories, contemporary Korean lives are rendered with sensitivity and realism—relationships tatter and bereaved loved-ones search for ways to move on. Viewed as a complete collection, though, a stranger narrative emerges, in which there is perhaps some invisible logic behind everything, incomprehensible to us. Wholly original, Swell, translated by Janet Hong, is a book full of trap doors, hidden passageways, and the unsolvable mystery behind everyday life.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
240 pages, Paperback
Published June 9, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
They fought constantly. Soon, the clean, cozy home turned into a cramped, smelly, filthy place. What had made them this way? Had the affair come first? Or the drinking? What was the excuse, and what was the real cause? Or was the whole thing just an excuse? Had there ever been such a thing as the truth? Sometimes she thought they'd simply been too young when they married-too young to know anything, too quick to believe. Maybe they should have had a child. That was what he thought. But honestly, children had never been possible. Not then, and not now.
그들은 허구한 날 싸웠다.깨끗하고 아담했던 집은 좁고 냄새나고 지저분한 곳으로 변했다. 무엇이 그들을 이렇게 만들어버린 것일까? 외도가 먼저였을까? 술이 먼저였을까? 무엇이 핑계고, 무엇이 진짜 이유일까? 그 모든 일이 핑계인 걸까? 진심이란 건 없었던 걸까? 가끔, 그녀는 그들이 결혼한 것이 너무 어렸을 때라고 생각했다. 그들은 그때 너무 어려서 아무것도 몰랐으며, 모든 것을 너무도 쉽게 믿어버렸다. 아이를 가졌어야 하는 건지도 몰랐다. 그는 그렇게 생각했다. 하지만, 정말이지 아이 같은 건 꿈도 꿀 수 없었다. 그때도 그랬고, 지금도 마찬가지였다.
Swell is Janet Hong's translation of the connected short-story collection 그들에게 린디합을 by 손보미 (Son Bo-Mi) (the original title taken from one of the pieces in the collection, Give Them the Lindy Hop).
The stories were originally published between 2009-2012, three winning prizes, before being brought together here in 2013, and then translated into English in 2026.
The stories, with original titles are:
Blanket - 담요
Downpour- 폭우
Silence- 침묵
Give Them the Lindy Hop - 그들에게 린디합을
The World of Women - 여자들의 세상
A Table for Six - 육 인용 식탁
The Love of a Scientist - 과학자의 사랑
A Sweet Sleep: Pang's Story - 달콤한 잠 ― 팽 이야기겨울호
Blimp - 애드벌룬
These are stories often of lives often lived with regret, relationships set awry by moments and choices that didn't seem significant at the time:
He thought maybe it was an effort to leave behind his old life, the one that had gone wrong - an effort to step away from a life riddled with sins, not because he'd done anything unforgiveable, but because everything has been set in motion long before and was beyond his control.
The stories, although stand-alone, have connections, ranging from the Jim Crace-like re-appearance of certain signatures such as the films of the ficticious Jean-Jacques Mileno, to the first and last presenting alternative world versions of each other (the main character in Blimp, imagines a world where he rather than his father was harmed in an incident at a concert, and where the actor Babe Ruth became instead a baseball player).
The stand-out stories are those that are most meta-fictional: The Love of a Scientist a true-fiction story (which is translated by a character in another story) of the eccentric but brilliant Caltech scientist Dr Gordon Gould; and Give Them The Lindy Hop, a multi-layered tale of a Korean director and a movie that may either be plagirised from his work, or a posthomous last work, or perhaps both.
And it was nice to see one story, A Sweet Sleep: Pang's Story, including a scene set 300 metres from my house (this obviously KCS): In his mid-teens, Pang had left Boston, where his parents lived, and moved to London to live with his grandmother. She enrolled him in a private high school in Wimbledon, and that was where Pang first met William.
Impressive.
그들은 허구한 날 싸웠다.깨끗하고 아담했던 집은 좁고 냄새나고 지저분한 곳으로 변했다. 무엇이 그들을 이렇게 만들어버린 것일까? 외도가 먼저였을까? 술이 먼저였을까? 무엇이 핑계고, 무엇이 진짜 이유일까? 그 모든 일이 핑계인 걸까? 진심이란 건 없었던 걸까? 가끔, 그녀는 그들이 결혼한 것이 너무 어렸을 때라고 생각했다. 그들은 그때 너무 어려서 아무것도 몰랐으며, 모든 것을 너무도 쉽게 믿어버렸다. 아이를 가졌어야 하는 건지도 몰랐다. 그는 그렇게 생각했다. 하지만, 정말이지 아이 같은 건 꿈도 꿀 수 없었다. 그때도 그랬고, 지금도 마찬가지였다.
Swell is Janet Hong's translation of the connected short-story collection 그들에게 린디합을 by 손보미 (Son Bo-Mi) (the original title taken from one of the pieces in the collection, Give Them the Lindy Hop).
The stories were originally published between 2009-2012, three winning prizes, before being brought together here in 2013, and then translated into English in 2026.
The stories, with original titles are:
Blanket - 담요
Downpour- 폭우
Silence- 침묵
Give Them the Lindy Hop - 그들에게 린디합을
The World of Women - 여자들의 세상
A Table for Six - 육 인용 식탁
The Love of a Scientist - 과학자의 사랑
A Sweet Sleep: Pang's Story - 달콤한 잠 ― 팽 이야기겨울호
Blimp - 애드벌룬
These are stories often of lives often lived with regret, relationships set awry by moments and choices that didn't seem significant at the time:
He thought maybe it was an effort to leave behind his old life, the one that had gone wrong - an effort to step away from a life riddled with sins, not because he'd done anything unforgiveable, but because everything has been set in motion long before and was beyond his control.
The stories, although stand-alone, have connections, ranging from the Jim Crace-like re-appearance of certain signatures such as the films of the ficticious Jean-Jacques Mileno, to the first and last presenting alternative world versions of each other (the main character in Blimp, imagines a world where he rather than his father was harmed in an incident at a concert, and where the actor Babe Ruth became instead a baseball player).
The stand-out stories are those that are most meta-fictional: The Love of a Scientist a true-fiction story (which is translated by a character in another story) of the eccentric but brilliant Caltech scientist Dr Gordon Gould; and Give Them The Lindy Hop, a multi-layered tale of a Korean director and a movie that may either be plagirised from his work, or a posthomous last work, or perhaps both.
And it was nice to see one story, A Sweet Sleep: Pang's Story, including a scene set 300 metres from my house (this obviously KCS): In his mid-teens, Pang had left Boston, where his parents lived, and moved to London to live with his grandmother. She enrolled him in a private high school in Wimbledon, and that was where Pang first met William.
Impressive.
May 4, 2026
Sometimes a short story collection comes along that stuns you, and this was one of them. Each story in the book is equally strong, weird and reads like a scene of a car crash that is disturbing but that you just can’t turn away from. The book bends reality and keeps you guessing with every story. Each one was like dipping your toe into a different scene of odd and intriguing people where you are dying to know what is really happening at the heart of each relationship. I truly couldn’t put the book down and thought every story in here was as fantastic as the last - highly recommend.
July 10, 2026
I was captivated by the description on Two Lines Press' site for this book, which has a rather different emphasis from the description in the goodreads entry: https://www.twolinespress.com/shop/bo...
Obviously I was looking forward to the unreliable narrators and metafictional touches. These are present, but the stories seem primarily preoccupied with the problems of conventional marriages that I don't find very interesting: (real and imaginary) infidelities, tensions in the relationships, domestic and social friction, etc. A lot of the male characters seem to be insufferable jerks, and not in interesting ways. There is also a bit much text lingering on clothing, furniture, and other domestic accessories that have only minor connections with the main narrative.
On the plus side, the prose and translation are both clean and very readable. I think I would have enjoyed a smaller collection of these stories; at the end, they were getting rather predictable.
[2.5 stars, rounded down]
Obviously I was looking forward to the unreliable narrators and metafictional touches. These are present, but the stories seem primarily preoccupied with the problems of conventional marriages that I don't find very interesting: (real and imaginary) infidelities, tensions in the relationships, domestic and social friction, etc. A lot of the male characters seem to be insufferable jerks, and not in interesting ways. There is also a bit much text lingering on clothing, furniture, and other domestic accessories that have only minor connections with the main narrative.
On the plus side, the prose and translation are both clean and very readable. I think I would have enjoyed a smaller collection of these stories; at the end, they were getting rather predictable.
[2.5 stars, rounded down]
Read
September 5, 2026Did not (really) finish (tried to skim it, but even so, I think it just made me space out or something alike that), fault is mine, I struggled with the style (and I just didn't have the required patience for the plot(lines), frankly ). I thought the opening selection/story was pretty fantastic though (albeit short, too brief almost), if that's any (albeit very minor) consolation.
March 13, 2026
A thrill to read! Each story was unique, well-crafted, and enriched the kaleidoscopic world Son Bo-Mi created with every story. I definitely feel like the book warrants a reread to connect characters and themes— I was flipping through the book trying to know everyone’s relationships and hypothetical and a/temporal relationships with one another!
July 26, 2026
4.5, but I'm rounding up because it has my favorite story I've read all year (Give Them the Lindy Hop), and even the stories that didn't land for me at first have been sticking in my head; can't ask for much more than that! Will happily gobble up any and all future translations of her work!
May 10, 2026
My favorite story was blanket and down pour. The way those stories were told captured me right a way. I liked the rest of the stories but blanket was so touching and sad when he spoke about losing his son. 🫂🖤
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 14, 2026
When the cover is so fire but the book is just OK 😞
June 21, 2026
I reviewed this in long form here: https://bookandfilmglobe.com/books/le...
Thanks to the publisher for the ARC!
Thanks to the publisher for the ARC!
July 23, 2026
I went into this collection knowing nothing, bought the book really on the basis of the author and I sharing the same surname. What a surprise this was. With each successive story I became increasingly taken by Son’s storytelling, tales of contemporary Korean lives that resonate emotionally while playfully, and always with masterful control, veering off into the uncanny. I want badly to read more of this author’s work. I hope more translations are in the pipeline. Son has a sneakily unique voice.
September 7, 2026
What a truly bonkers and bizarre collection of stories.
Swell presents a set of interconnected stories based on the lives of ordinary people - workers, parents, sons, daughters, friends, caretakers, police officers and others. Their stories are told from different perspectives, often by documentarians and novelists, but also by connected characters or gossips.
There is also a weird, parallel universe-feel to this book, as some characters return to a different life or things have changed. At times, it was a bit hard to keep up with. Sometimes it was quite easy to read them as individual stories, but some of them were more clearly connected.
My favourite stories were Give Them the Lindy Hop and Pang’s Story, although Blimp was a good way to finalise the collection. I enjoyed this from start to finish, even if I was slightly confused at times.
Throughout these stories, we learn about the fairly average lives of the Korean characters. They go to work and raise families, join dinner parties or attend classes, but they also experience hardships such as grief, loss, and failure, making them somewhat relatable.
I don’t speak Korean, but I felt as though it was well translated. Nothing seemed or felt amiss with the language used, so that’s wonderful! I’ll definitely keep an eye out for her other translations.
Also, the cover is absolutely incredible!! Sometimes, you really can judge a book by its cover.
Extra info: Son Bo-Mi is a fiction writer from South Korea and her works have won multiple major Korean literary awards. Her work typically reflects on how history impacts personal lives, memory and desire, and her story ‘The Cat Thief’ was also translated by Janet Hong.
Swell presents a set of interconnected stories based on the lives of ordinary people - workers, parents, sons, daughters, friends, caretakers, police officers and others. Their stories are told from different perspectives, often by documentarians and novelists, but also by connected characters or gossips.
There is also a weird, parallel universe-feel to this book, as some characters return to a different life or things have changed. At times, it was a bit hard to keep up with. Sometimes it was quite easy to read them as individual stories, but some of them were more clearly connected.
My favourite stories were Give Them the Lindy Hop and Pang’s Story, although Blimp was a good way to finalise the collection. I enjoyed this from start to finish, even if I was slightly confused at times.
Throughout these stories, we learn about the fairly average lives of the Korean characters. They go to work and raise families, join dinner parties or attend classes, but they also experience hardships such as grief, loss, and failure, making them somewhat relatable.
I don’t speak Korean, but I felt as though it was well translated. Nothing seemed or felt amiss with the language used, so that’s wonderful! I’ll definitely keep an eye out for her other translations.
Also, the cover is absolutely incredible!! Sometimes, you really can judge a book by its cover.
Extra info: Son Bo-Mi is a fiction writer from South Korea and her works have won multiple major Korean literary awards. Her work typically reflects on how history impacts personal lives, memory and desire, and her story ‘The Cat Thief’ was also translated by Janet Hong.
May 7, 2026
Thank you for the #gifted early copy Two Lines Press
Swell by Son Bo-Mi (translated from Korean by Janet Hong) [Releasing on JUNE 9]🚨
I’m writing this after finishing this short story collection, and I have to say that I am speechless.
I’ve always been impressed by how short stories can be so full of information and, for lack of a better word, “story” while remaining straightforward and concise. Swell is one of the most impressive collections I’ve seen.
As I began the book, the first stories made me uneasy, and I was worried for these characters; their emotions felt so real to me. As the stories progressed and began to interconnect, I found myself speculating about where characters came from and which stories they were in. It is a completely mind-blowing experience.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but one story has an alternate universe in a different story, and another story was translated by a character in a completely different story. Sounds confusing, I know, but that is the exciting part; as you continue to read and connect the stories, you become familiar with the characters, and it feels similar to experiencing a new flavor for the first time and expanding your palate.
Again, I’m in awe and grateful for the opportunity to witness this.
Swell by Son Bo-Mi (translated from Korean by Janet Hong) [Releasing on JUNE 9]🚨
I’m writing this after finishing this short story collection, and I have to say that I am speechless.
I’ve always been impressed by how short stories can be so full of information and, for lack of a better word, “story” while remaining straightforward and concise. Swell is one of the most impressive collections I’ve seen.
As I began the book, the first stories made me uneasy, and I was worried for these characters; their emotions felt so real to me. As the stories progressed and began to interconnect, I found myself speculating about where characters came from and which stories they were in. It is a completely mind-blowing experience.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but one story has an alternate universe in a different story, and another story was translated by a character in a completely different story. Sounds confusing, I know, but that is the exciting part; as you continue to read and connect the stories, you become familiar with the characters, and it feels similar to experiencing a new flavor for the first time and expanding your palate.
Again, I’m in awe and grateful for the opportunity to witness this.
September 12, 2026
This is a good collection of short stories that is wildly mis advertised. The description on the back makes it sound like the stories contain alternate timelines of one another and all tie together into one cohesive story. In my experience, it was more like they were loosely connected and sometimes one story would vaguely reference another. I wish the book hadn’t been marketed this way because I was so focused on finding connections that I was taken out of the meat and potatoes of the stories.
That being said, I really enjoyed reading this! Many of the stories are about broken relationships, which definitely gets a quite bleak after a while, but each one has a slightly different spin as themes of infidelity, dissatisfaction, and unhappiness take hold with different characters and different settings. It’s an absolute page turner and I really love the writing style. I could definitely see myself reading more from this author. 3.5 stars.
PS this was the second book I read this summer with a Gould… both were real people, neither with any relation to me
That being said, I really enjoyed reading this! Many of the stories are about broken relationships, which definitely gets a quite bleak after a while, but each one has a slightly different spin as themes of infidelity, dissatisfaction, and unhappiness take hold with different characters and different settings. It’s an absolute page turner and I really love the writing style. I could definitely see myself reading more from this author. 3.5 stars.
PS this was the second book I read this summer with a Gould… both were real people, neither with any relation to me
August 15, 2026
Swell is an unsettling collection of short stories, exploring the intertwined lives of its characters.
Son is particularly good at grounding her stories in ordinary experiences before destabilising them to build a sense of uncertainty. Contemporary lives grounded in realism make way for strange, underlying logic where stories loop, shift, and overlap in unexpected ways.
The collection feels both familiar and strangely unstable, as though something is always just out of reach. And Janet Hong’s translation keeps the prose sharp and understated, letting the book’s oddness emerge naturally.
What does let the prose down is its tendency to sometimes overdescribe the more mundane aspects (clothing, furniture, etc). I also found the characterisation of some characters more insufferable than engaging.
Overall, it is an interesting read for those who enjoy metafiction and unreliable narrators.
Son is particularly good at grounding her stories in ordinary experiences before destabilising them to build a sense of uncertainty. Contemporary lives grounded in realism make way for strange, underlying logic where stories loop, shift, and overlap in unexpected ways.
The collection feels both familiar and strangely unstable, as though something is always just out of reach. And Janet Hong’s translation keeps the prose sharp and understated, letting the book’s oddness emerge naturally.
What does let the prose down is its tendency to sometimes overdescribe the more mundane aspects (clothing, furniture, etc). I also found the characterisation of some characters more insufferable than engaging.
Overall, it is an interesting read for those who enjoy metafiction and unreliable narrators.
September 14, 2026
This was my first encounter with this writer, and I remain very intrigued. These are mostly sad tales, and our distance from each other and the difficulty of conveying meaning are two of the recurring themes. Characters reappear across stories, so keep an eye on the names. There are definitely some strange turns, including UFOs (great story). The translation is very good, very readable—I think the story about the scientist was my favorite, although that may just be because I read Benjamin Labatut. I also enjoyed the one about the music magazine/porn translator.
July 17, 2026
Loved this collection of beautifully written short stories. Every story was a bit of a puzzle strung together by a hidden thread.
I read it slowly, maybe one story a night, and it felt like reading poetry in a way. It’s the kind of collection that rewards you with a reread. I plan to read it again.
I read it slowly, maybe one story a night, and it felt like reading poetry in a way. It’s the kind of collection that rewards you with a reread. I plan to read it again.
September 13, 2026
I think this would have been better had I read it in the original Korean - I didn't like the clunkiness of the translation, but I could certainly grasp Bo-Mi's intent. There were some parts that I didn't totally understand or read as a bit awkward because of the differences between American and Korean culture, which was very interesting. At any rate, I had high hopes so I'm disappointed.
Review of advance copy
My first time finding an advance readers’ copy in a little free library📚 Picked it up just because I hadn’t read a short story collection in a while, but this ended up being my favorite read in a long time! Particularly liked Silence & A Table for Six.
August 9, 2026
A collection of short stories strung together by a hidden thread but actually the thread is made of jello and disintegrates every time you think something tastes good. 2.5 stars but I’m rounding up because 2 feels too harsh.
September 15, 2026
Sometimes you get given a book you just connect to for no particular reason, I am a short story lover and this did not disappoint. Now having read the whole book, I wanna do a re-read and find the "easter eggs". Definitely puts you onto all different perspectives of life
September 18, 2026
These sharp short stories were small windows into people's odd lives. I can't explain how these made me feel. Truly had me going hmmm and huh? after each one.
(Swell and The Love of a Scientist were my favorites.)
(Swell and The Love of a Scientist were my favorites.)
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews