Chung Bo-ra’s ‘Cursed Bunny’ to be published in 16 countries

Chung Bo-ra’s collection of short stories titled “Curse Bunny” will be published in 16 countries, including the U.S. and Canada. The book was translated by Anton Hur and made the final list for the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Prix Goncourt, and the Booker Prize, which is considered to be one of the three major literary prizes in the world.

“The publication right of ‘Cursed Bunny’ was sold to Algonquin Books under Hachette Book Group, a large North American publication group,” said Kim Si-hyung, the head of Greenbook Agency in charge of overseas publication right contracts of the book. The publication right contract targeting the U.S. and Canada includes the sales of a paperback, e-book, and audiobook. The 30,000-dollar deal is about 10 times more expensive than its previous contract in the U.K. Other large American publishers, such as HarperCollins and Penguin Random House, also participated in the bidding of the publication right to the North American market.

The publication right of “Curse Bunny” was sold to seven countries, including the U.K., China, Spain, Indonesia, Turkey, Poland, and Japan, before it made the first-round list for the Booker Prize on March 11. After it made a list, the book signed additional publication right contracts in nine countries, including the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Albania, Romania, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Italy, and Germany.

Hachette Book Group headquartered in New York is a large publication distributor, publishing over 1,600 books per year. “Pachinko” written by Lee Min-jin was also published by one of the subsidiaries of the group.


hoho@donga.com