‘If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light’ by Kim Choyeop (Review)

In the wake of Han Kang’s literary success, a wider variety of Korean writers and styles have begun to make it into English, with speculative fiction one genre having its day in the sun. I’ve already tried works by Bora Chung, Bae Myung-hoon and Djuna, and today sees me adding another writer to that list. Here we have a collection of stories with its eyes firmly on the future, but even if some of the technology is out of this world, the themes at times are certainly closer to home. ***** Kim Choyeop’s If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light (translated by Anton Hur, review copy courtesy of MacLehose Press) is a collection of seven stories, all concerned with what might happen (many) years from now. All the stories are different, existing in their own world, with little connecting them apart from their focus on the future, and where it might take us. The opening piece, ‘Symbiosis Theory’, ushers readers into Kim’s world nicely. This one begins by introducing us to a woman whose art is…