The Hive and the Honey

Young Lions Award winner Yoon’s third short story collection (following 2017’s The Mountain), narrated by Raymond J. Lee, transports listeners into a breathtaking tapestry of worlds, exploring the complicated communities of the Korean diaspora. The seven stories feature characters with rich inner lives, engaging with longing, loss, and hope as they search for belonging. “At the Post Station” features a Japanese samurai who travels with a boy soon to return to Korea, and in “Bosun,” a formerly incarcerated man settles in a small Upstate New York town in the mountains. Other stories feature Korean shop owners in London who work far too hard and a maid in Spain who agrees to spy on a Russian prizefighter who could be her son. Lee honors Yoon’s simple but beautifully crafted language, providing a soulful narration that taps into the melancholic and meditative atmosphere.