The Plotters

October 1, 2018
An assassin in Seoul's underworld is embroiled in a rivalry between the mysterious men who literally call the shots.Reseng, the hero of the first novel by Kim to appear in English, is a coldblooded killer whose lone-wolf persona seems stitched out of equal parts Jack Reacher and Harry Bosch. An orphan, he was raised for most of his life by Old Raccoon, a shady fixer who lives in a massive but neglected library while plotting murders. Reseng has been the don't-ask-questions type until he learns that a colleague didn't follow through on killing a prostitute like he was supposed to. And when that colleague is found dead, he's moved to start investigating the "plotters" who make his world move. The answer to Reseng's inquiries aren't particularly engaging or surprising: Corporations and government leaders in South Korea plan killings to preserve power, amassing a small army of "washed-up assassins, gangsters, retired servicemen and former homicide detectives, tired of working for peanuts." And of course, Reseng is a target himself, via a bomb installed in his toilet. The novel is somewhat redeemed from its stock plotting in its more visceral moments: There's a lively gallows humor to scenes where Reseng pays regular visits to the man who cremates gang-war victims, and he casually slices off one man's fingers as coolly as you might make a salad. Kim makes a few gestures toward literary gravitas, like a flashback to a woman in Reseng's more innocent past and some riffing about the source of human violence. ("A handful of villains isn't enough to affect the world. The world is like this because we're too meek." ) But between the convoluted plotting and myriad stylistic intentions, Kim hasn't identified a clear target to hit.An energetic mashup of thriller tropes that doesn't quite jell.

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Starred review from October 29, 2018
Korean author Kim makes his U.S. debut with a powerful, surreal political thriller, in which assassination is a business “driven by market forces.” The faceless plotters of the title employ hit men such as Reseng, an orphan found in a garbage can who was adopted by a man called Old Raccoon. The bookish Reseng grows up in Old Raccoon’s library—a place “crawling with assassins, hired guns and bounty hunters.” In the first chapter, Reseng kills a retired general from the days of South Korea’s military junta after spending a sociable evening at the old man’s house. The complex plot, in which Reseng becomes involved with a more polished, CEO-like hit man named Hanja, builds to a highly cinematic and violent denouement. Most memorable, though, is the novel’s message about the insidiousness of unaccountable institutions, from those under the military junta to those that thrive in today’s economy. The consequence of the pervasive corruption is an air of existential despair. This strange, ambitious book will appeal equally to literary fiction readers.

Starred review from November 15, 2018
Reseng, 32, has been a professional assassin for 15 years, minus a short factory-worker stint at 22, while playing house with the love of his life. That he's survived this long?never mind his risky career, he's also a two-pack-a-day smoker with a beer-for-breakfast diet?is remarkable. Pulled from a garbage can as an infant, nunnery-raised until he turned four, Reseng then grew up fostered by a killer called Old Racoon, living in his "gloomy, labyrinthine library" named the Doghouse. Discovering literacy at nine (he never went to school), Reseng now avoids boredom and loneliness by reading books, from Sophocles to Calvino, in between his murderous assignments by "the plotters"?the elite, beyond-the-law puppet masters who control their putative democracy in post-military-dictatorship style. Reseng's life continues smoothly enough until he finds a bomb in his toilet. Fortunately, he was Beer Week-upchucking; other-end purging would have been fatally explosive. His search for the bombmaker leads him to two orphaned sisters and a cross-eyed librarian from his past and onward to an ultimate plot that might save the world?or might not. The winner of prestigious prizes in Korea, Kim makes his anglophone debut, thanks to Kim-Russell, who captures his dark, dark wit and searing sarcasm in an irresistible sociopolitical parable designed to delight and dismay.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2018

In an alternate Seoul with competing assassination guilds, Reseng dutifully kills whom he is told to kill. Then he inadvertently disrupts a scheme that's been carefully crafted by three young women and must decide if he wants to take control. A first English translation from multi-award winner Kim.

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