Author(s): Yun Ko-Eun; Lizzie Buehler (Translator)

Novel

A satirical Korean eco-thriller with a fierce feminist sensibility.

Yona has been stuck behind a desk for years working as a programming coordinator for Jungle, a travel company specialising in package holidays to destinations ravaged by disaster. When a senior colleague touches her inappropriately she tries to complain, and in an attempt to bury her allegations, the company make her an attractive proposition: a free ticket for one of their most sought-after trips, to the desert island of Mui.

She accepts the offer and travels the remote island, where the major attraction is a supposedly-dramatic sinkhole. When the customers who've paid a premium for the trip begin to get frustrated, Yona realises that the company has dangerous plans to fabricate an environmental catastrophe to make the trip more interesting, but when she tries to raise the alarm, she discovers she has put her own life in danger.

Yona has been stuck behind a desk for years working as a programming coordinator for Jungle, a travel company specialising in package holidays to destinations ravaged by disaster. When a senior colleague touches her inappropriately she tries to complain, and in an attempt to bury her allegations, the company make her an attractive proposition: a free ticket for one of their most sought-after trips, to the desert island of Mui. She accepts the offer and travels the remote island, where the major attraction is a supposedly-dramatic sinkhole. When the customers who've paid a premium for the trip begin to get frustrated, Yona realises that the company has dangerous plans to fabricate an environmental catastrophe to make the trip more interesting, but when she tries to raise the alarm, she discovers she has put her own life in danger.

Review: A gripping literary thriller about disaster, adventure, and a crisis of conscience that will resonate with any traveller. -- Jennifer Croft, author of Homesick and winner of the Man Booker International Prize for her translation of Olga Tokarczuk's Flights An endlessly surprising and totally gripping read, The Disaster Tourist is as hilarious as it is heartbreaking. It questions every aspect of life we so often take for granted, smashing apart any easy distinctions between natural and artificial, normal and abnormal, peaceful and violent, personal and political. There could not be a more prescient moment for this too-real fiction about how we create our own disasters on every scale and what resilience might mean in the face of catastrophe. -- Elvia Wilk, author of Oval A labyrinth of catastrophes and cataclysms, The Disaster Tourist is a precisely penned novel that lays bare the human condition. Mysterious, evocative, and rich. -- Sarah Rose Etter, author of The Book of X Cleverly combines absurdity with legitimate horror and mounting dread. With its arresting, nightmarish island scenario, this work speaks volumes about the human cost of tourism in developing countries. * Publishers Weekly * An exciting up-and-coming writer tackling gender ... these themes aren't unique to South Korea, but ones that resonate with women globally. -- Katie Goh * i-D * A mordantly witty novel that touches on everything from the rise of "dark tourism" to sexual predators in the office to climate change ... a highly literary, ultra-incisive thriller * Refinery29 *

Author Biography: Yun Ko-eun was born in Seoul in 1980. Her short story 'Piercing' won the Daesan Literary Award for College Students the year she graduated from university. She received the 2008 Hankyorek Literature Award for her novel The Zero G Syndrome and in 2015 her short story collection Aloha won the Kim Yong Ik Novel Prize.