The Cabinet

A mind-bending work of literary fiction from one of South Korea's hottest new novelists.

Cabinet 13 looks like an old, ordinary cabinet. But it is filled with stories - peculiar, strange, eye popping, disgusting, enraging, and touching stories. The life of the man who manages cabinet 13, an ordinary office manager, is similarly filled with stories. Un-Su Kim intricately interweaves the all these stories with precise prose and in rich style, and will leave you thinking about the stories inside your own cabinet long after you turn the final page.

A hidden gem that's absolutely fascinating and weird. It's a book about a mysterious filing cabinet who Mr. Kong is appointed to protect and organize. He watches over the files about people called the Symptomers and researches them. Each chapter focuses on a different Symptomer which makes it easy to digest, however, the second half of the book takes you into a stronger narrative thread. A few examples of Symptomers are a man who has a gingko tree growing out of his finger tip, a man who keeps calling to be turned into a cat, people who, at any given moment, lose specific amounts of time and people who sleep for months. It's full of metaphors and social commentary on Korean society and work life. It's a bizarre read that takes a dark turn.