Written by Seo Hyun Sook


The writer, who was born in Chuncheon city and worked as a high school teacher for a long time, was appointed to work at the school located in Samcheok city. She began her own independent living at the age of 50. A common alley and small town near the beach are the ones the writer has found in Samcheok with the eye of a stranger. This book shows how she has been attracted by people who run stores for 35 years and steamed corns. We can also read the behind stories after her publishment of ‘Read a Boy.’ The warm and lovable stories in the ‘country’ will comfort us who have to adapt to the rapidly changing world.

Samcheok city originated from the small country named ‘Shil-Jik.’ The city is such a quiet place where we can still feel the ancient time. Compared with other cities like Gangneung, Yangyang, Sokcho where many people intend to visit, the Samcheok city has the feelings of silence and quietness of local people. Even the nearby Donghae city looked more like the city. The writer enjoyed watching somewhat tensed competitive attitudes among people in Donghae and Samcheok with the eyes of the stranger. The reason why the story of small city, which not many people were interested in compared to Seoul or other big cities, is quite fresh and attractive. That is because readers can have small and ordinary fun which they can never experience in any other places. The writer introduces the beauty of Samcheok city as well as the beauty of Donghae and Mookho. However, the spots the writer introduces are quite different from other tourist spots written in the map.

Those places are the beach in Samcheok city at 10:00 in the morning, the street toward the Church Seongnae with beautiful night views, the cozy alley near Jeongra port, the closed Dogyungri station, Bookpyung canteen with tasty noodle and Korean traditional raw rice wine, instant market only open during the morning, the beautiful Galnam village, and small stores in Samcheock central market which steamed corns for 35 years…… Why would the writer want to tell and show the stories related to these spots? That is because they have their own time in their heart, which is quite far from the time in reality where everything changes so fast and quickly.

The writer began to like walking in the old alleys in Samcheok city. While doing so, she listened to the stories about an empty house and feels sorry for someone living in that cold empty house. Her delicate and sensitive mind as a stranger does not just stay in space itself. Rather, she feels more sensitive toward people, such as students at her school, the old couple running a canteen, and people who diligently work at the same place for a long time. She got comfort and was deeply touched by those people. She called this as the privilege of the stranger.

The writer also shares emotions with children in Samcheok city who genuinely listen to others and care about the stories from the novel. She thinks that they are so innocent because there is no anonymity here due to the small size of the city. Children all understand that just a simple greeting from neighboring adults is the kindness and care for them.