Oxford Soju Club - by Jinwoo Park (Paperback)

About the Book

A killing of a North Korean spymaster triggers a game of espionage involving Yohan Kim, a North Korean intelligence operative; Yunah Choi, a Korean American CIA agent stationed in Oxford; and Jihoon Lim, a Korean restaurateur who runs the Soju Club.

Book Synopsis

The natural enemy of a Korean is another Korean.

When North Korean spymaster Doha Kim is mysteriously killed in Oxford, his protégé, Yohan Kim, chases the only breadcrumb given to him in Doha's last breath: "Soju Club, Dr. Ryu." In the meantime, a Korean American CIA agent, Yunah Choi, races to salvage her investigation of the North Korean spy cell in the aftermath of the assassination. At the centre of it all is the Soju Club, the only Korean restaurant in Oxford, owned by Jihoon Lim, an immigrant from Seoul in search of a new life after suffering a tragedy. As different factions move in with their own agendas, their fates become entangled, resulting in a bitter struggle that will determine whose truth will triumph.

Oxford Soju Club weaves a tale of how immigrants in the Korean diaspora are forced to create identities to survive, and how in the end, they must shed those masks and seek their true selves.

Review Quotes

Oxford Soju Club is a gripping spy thriller that, at its core, tackles fundamental questions of identity and our place in the world. Park writes with stark honesty, deftly unraveling the inner turmoil of those caught between duty and self. A wonderful debut.

-- "Monika Kim, author of The Eyes Are The Best Part"

On top of crafting a clever spy thriller, Park uses its vernacular of shifting alliances, donned masks, and the training one undergoes to assimilate to deftly probe questions of diasporic identity and how we decide where we belong.-- "Elaine U. Cho, author of Ocean's Godori"

Wildly inventive, fast-paced, and glowing with heart, Oxford Soju Club is an unforgettable debut. A spy thriller interlacing the paths of three individuals embroiled in what threatens to become an international incident, with a breakneck plot and a poignant way of describing trying to exist between worlds and to carve a place of your own in between.-- "Jinwoo Chong, author of Flux"

About the Author

Jinwoo Park is a Korean Canadian writer based in Montreal. He completed a master's in creative writing at the University of Oxford. In 2021, he won the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award. He is also a literary translator and received the LTI Korea Translation Award for Aspiring Translators in 2023. Oxford Soju Club is his debut novel.