The Cabinet

Translated from Korean, these delightfully imaginative and humorous interconnected short stories examine the characters from Cabinet 13. Cabinet 13 catalogs people referred to as symptomers, humans who represent a jump in the evolutionary chain and might be considered a new species. Office assistant Mr. Kong works for Professor Kwon, who's in charge of studying and keeping track of this new species. From a man with a ginkgo tree blooming from his pinkie to a time skipper to a woman with a lizard growing inside her mouth, these symptomers are both fascinating and annoying to Mr. Kong. While the first half reads like a series of anecdotes, a larger plot slowly emerges. Quirky and inventive, this is the second of award-winning author Un-Su Kim’s novels to be translated into English