At Night He Lifts Weights

Kang Young-sook is the author of four novels, including the award-winning Rina, and five short story collections. She often writes about the female grotesque, delving into varying genres as urban noir, fantasy, and ecofiction. She was most recently a resident at the National Centre for Writing, and currently teaches creative writing at Ewha Womans University and Korea National University of Arts.

"This powerful collection strikingly depicts alienation, catastrophic loss, and disaster in ravaged landscapes....Young-sook’s perceptive stories provide an unwavering and honest gaze at human nature."—Publishers WeeklyThere stories are populated by isolated characters who exist in crumbling worlds sometimes governed by the logic of dreams…but the malaise dissolves once the characters attempt to connect. “—The New Yorker “These stories about environmental and social failure remind us that the dystopian future we fear is already here…With Kang holding the hammer, this collection lists to the side of atomization and desolation.”—Kirkus Reviews"Much as the title of this collection evokes a kind of physical exertion, so too do the stories within hum with a visceral quality. Sometimes, that quality works to turn the bizarre into something familiar; at others, it magnifies the extraordinary and often disconcerting experiences of these stories’ protagonists."—Tobias Carroll, Words Without Borders"Perceptive and subversive, the stories in At Night He Lifts Weights vary in tone and genre, but each is singularly captivating, swirling around themes of loss — ecological destruction, loneliness, and death. Each has a subtle illusion of calm that conceals what lies below in the unnerving depths."—Pierce Alquist, Book Riot