Shin Kyung-sook's New Book Snapped up by U.S. Publisher

Novelist Shin Kyung-sook's new book has been snapped up by a U.S. publisher after the surprise success there of her tearjerker "Please Look After Mom."

"I Had Gone to My Father" will be published by newcomer Astra Publishing House.

The novel looks at the life of a father who experienced the Korean War and military coup through the eyes of his daughter. It is her eighth novel and comes 10 years after the U.S. release of "Please Look After Mom."

Literary agent Barbara Zitwer said, "Shin led the way for everyone else to come, I think. 'Please Look After Mom'... sold in over 30 countries, and became a beloved classic and showed international publishers that Korean authors could and did have global commercial appeal."

According to Shin's Korean publisher Changbi, around 30,000 copies of "I Had Gone to My Father" have been sold here so far.

In 2015, Shin was exposed as plagiarizing the short story "Patriotism" by Japanese author Yukio Mishima in her own story "Legend" published in 1996. She said she made a youthful mistake.