One evening in Seoul, Jeong-su watches a vast black sphere absorb his neighbour.

The orb cannot be damaged, passes through walls and follows the nearest person with slow, unbroken persistence. Soon it begins to divide. As Seoul collapses into panic and the phenomenon spreads beyond the city, Jeong-su joins the mass flight into the countryside while trying to reach his elderly parents.

Beginning with the clean mechanics of a nightmare, The Black Orb expands into a dryly funny and increasingly brutal study of disaster. Throughout, we see how institutions, families and strangers respond to something they cannot control: through denial, bureaucratic absurdity, violence, rumour, opportunism and occasional solidarity. The result sits somewhere between apocalyptic horror, Kafka and social satire.

Originally published in Korea in 2009 as The Orb of Despair, the novel won the inaugural Multi Literature Award and has since been translated into nine languages. Its belated English publication gives its scenes of lockdowns, official misinformation and contagious mass panic an eerie post-pandemic resonance, despite the book having been written more than a decade earlier.

First English-language edition, first printing. Translated from the Korean by Sean Lin Halbert. Serpent’s Tail, 2024. Paperback. Very good condition, with minor shelf wear.