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About the Book

No. 9 is in trouble. His son’s college tuition is coming due, his wife needs surgery after taking double shifts at a grocery store, the apartment building they bought as a nest egg is falling apart, and the company he helped build is trying to force him into early retirement. When he refuses, the mid-level IT man is demoted to sales and given increasingly impossible tasks. As his salary dwindles and the humiliations mount, No. 9 must decide where his loyalties lie. If he fights back, how far will the company go to stop him?

With her urgent and timely novel, award-winning Korean author Kim Hye-jin questions how long we can endure a broken system. In a rigged game, is there an alternative to playing out your hand?

PRAISE FOR EMPLOYEE NO. 9

“Employee No. 9 is unflinching in its raw depiction of the way capitalism can shrink a life down to an endless parade of small humiliations. With writing as unrelenting and controlled as the invisible company at the center of this novel, Kim shows the horror of living in a broken world that forces us to choose the false promise of agency over our dignity. I couldn’t look away.”

— Ling Ling Huang, author of Immaculate Conception and Natural Beauty

“Kim Hye-jin’s deft and unsparing portrayal of late-stage capitalism in Korea takes on an almost Beckettian flair in its exploration of the decent, unremarkable man caught in the gears of the machine with seemingly no way out.”

— Marie Myung-Ok Lee, author of Somebody’s Daughter and The Evening Hero

“Author Kim Hye-jin and translator Jamie Chang bring an extraordinary work of literature in Employee No. 9. A portrait of labor, identity, and desperation in modern corporate life, the novel explores a world shaped by inequality and the erosion of workers’ rights. Employee No. 9 captures a growing global unease surrounding labor and survival while remaining deeply rooted in the realities of contemporary Korean society.”

— E. J. Koh, author of The Liberators and The Magical Language of Others

“A searing critique of the workplace culture in an ultra-modern society like South Korea, where the race for higher profits trumps human dignity. Its powerful narrative reverberates long after the last page.”

— Wondra Chang, author of Sonju, nominated for the National Book Award

“Employee No. 9 was a quick read but one that really stuck with me in its portrayal of working life for an employee in a large firm whose higher-ups are determinedly trying to oust him. Despite the company's best efforts, the man keeps hanging on, accepting demotions and pay cuts, impossible tasks and meaningless positions, all in an effort to continue with the work he’s loved for years and to support his family. Naturally, there is a lot of social commentary in this work, but at its heart is the story of an individual trying to do his best despite the odds stacked against him. I am giving it 4.5 stars.”

— Nicki J. Markus via Goodreads

Praise for Kim Hye-Jin

“In this near-weightless tale of the heaviness of living, Haesoo Lim, a former psychotherapist and regular TV guest, walks the nighttime streets of her South Korean town, lost in a fog of confusion after the disintegration of her marriage and the ending of her career. . . . Haesoo’s story is revealed to us remotely, tentatively, akin to the way she herself moves around the neighborhood and to the way many of the block’s frightened street cats eye her. One scruffy orange cat in particular piques her interest. It’s been named Turnip by a local child, 10-year-old Sei, who befriends Haesoo. Gradually, the reality of Sei’s empty home life brushes up against Haesoo’s sad wanderings, which in turn brush up against Turnip’s struggle for survival: a triangle of characters locked into each other’s fate, each looking for relief, for a lasting home. Melancholy and ruminative yet possessed of a quiet energy, Kim’s tale leads Haesoo toward the realization that, more often than not, what we yearn to be is who we already are, that life is less a matter of becoming than of revealing.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Award-winning Korean author Kim Hye-jin’s sublime sophomore title-in-translation, Counsel Culture, is the spare, intense study of a woman in crisis, a subject Kim so strikingly presented in her 2022 Anglophone debut, Concerning My Daughter. She reunites with translator Jamie Chang, who again skillfully mirrors Kim’s clean, affecting prose.”

— Terry Hong, Shelf Awareness

“Kim does not offer pat solutions or mawkish sentimentality; rather, Haesoo’s attempts to care for Sei and Turnip provide a framework for her defensiveness and self-pity to give way to atonement and healing. The result is an appealing meditation on personal and professional ethics.”

— Publisher’s Weekly

“Kim’s beautifully introspective novel thoughtfully explores the time it takes to process difficult experiences and the restoration that can happen when people open up to each other without expectation.” 

—Emily Park, Booklist 

“Counsel Culture is a heartwarming story of a middle-aged woman who rescues a sick cat and comforts a child through difficult times, set in the chilling tale of a man who takes his own life because of her. The two veins entwine and cling relentlessly, staying with the reader beyond the covers.”

—Cho Nam-joo, author of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

“What do a midlife counselor, a 10-year-old girl and a couple of feral cats have in common? This unique, gritty and heartfelt story of loss, friendship and redemption, of course!”

—Karla J. Strand, Ms. Magazine

About the Author

Kim Hye-jin debuted in 2012 when her short story won the Dong-A Ilbo Spring Literary Contest. One of the most prominent voices in contemporary Korean literature, her works have been translated and published in over twenty countries worldwide. She is the author of the novels Concerning My Daughter, Counsel Culture, and What Is Hers, as well as the short story collections Eobi, The Life Called You, The Heart Wishing for Blessings, and The Warmth of Eggs. She has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Shin Dong-yup Prize for Literature, the Daesan Literary Award, and the Kim Yujeong Literary Award.

Book Details

Paperback ISBN: 9781632064271 • $18.00
eBook ISBN: 9781632064288
Publication date: October 20, 2026
5" x 7.125" • 208 pages
Fiction: South Korea / Literary / Asia / Family Life / Parenthood & Children
Rights: World English, Audio