Join us on October 3rd for the launch of Jinwoo Park’s debut novel OXFORD SOJU CLUB— a literary thriller that examines the masks immigrants wear in their adoptive countries for the sake of survival. Jinwoo will read from the novel and discuss the book with poet Kristen Brida before an audience Q&A and signing.
OXFORD SOJU CLUB will be available for purchase in-store at H&H Books and on ecommerce. Get your copy ahead of time or at the event!
This event is free, but registration is highly encouraged! Email events@theheadandthehand.com with any questions.
About the Book:
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.
About the Authors:
Jinwoo Park is a Korean Canadian writer and literary translator based in Montreal. Born in Seoul, he has lived in various parts of North America and the UK since the age of 11. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from McGill in 2013, followed by a master’s in political economics from LSE in 2014, and a master’s in creative writing at the University of Oxford in 2015. In 2021 he won the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers’ Award for his first fiction manuscript, Oxford Soju Club, which will be published by Dundurn Press in September 2025. IG: @jinwoopark0721 TikTok: @jinwoopark0721
Kristen Brida has made books her whole life ever since she grabbed Shel Silverstein’s Falling up at a Scholastic Bookfair in kindergarten and fell in love with reading and poetry. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University, where she taught introductory writing and literature courses. You can find some of her work at DIALOGIST, Fairy Tale Review, and New Delta Review. She currently is a columnist at The PoetryLab and runs a Bookstagram and BookTok dedicated to showing poetry is for everyone and uncovering hidden literary gems. IG: booksby_kb TikTok: @booksby_kb
