BooksFantasy

The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang (translated by Slin Jung) (book review).

Serin is unhappy. Everything she does feels wrong and out of place. Her family’s financial situation has worsened since her father’s death. Her sister has run away. Serin feels like she doesn’t have a friend or a hope in the world.

Except there is one hope. A rumour. There is a rumour about a strange, abandoned house on the outskirts of Rainbow City. If you write a letter to this house, detailing all of your troubles and misfortunes, you might get sent a ticket in return. This ticket will grant you access to the Rainfall Market, a place where anything is possible and where you have the opportunity to fundamentally transform your life. You have a single opportunity and a vast market to explore, and you only have a few days during the rainy season to discover your ultimate happiness. If you remain in the Rainfall Market after the rain stops, you will forever become a part of it.

This was not the book I expected it to be. I expected a cosy fantasy like ‘Legends And Lattes’ or ‘The Teller Of Small Fortunes.’. ‘The Rainfall Market’, on the other hand, doesn’t appear to target an adult audience. This is a fairy tale that brought back memories of reading Diana Wynn Jones’ “Howl’s Moving Castle” or Patricia Wrede’s “Dealing With Dragons,” where an unhappy girl takes a chance to go out into the world and change things. Fortunately, the world of fairy tales rewards kindness, and these rewards often prove invaluable in the final chapter. Yes, it is predictable in that way, but I do not care. You Yeong-Gwang has written a modern fairy tale that made me feel warm inside. I do not speak Korean, so I cannot say how well this book is translated, but Slin Jung has put the story into flowing English that doesn’t have the strange sense of dissonance that I often feel from translations.

The message of this story is simple, but that is the point. Movies like “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “The Wizard of Oz” are perennial favourites because they remind us to look around us and see the happiness that we already have that everyday life has distracted us from. Serin doesn’t need a tornado or a guardian angel because she goes and does something to change things for herself. Like my old favourites, Princess Cimorene in ‘Dealing With Dragons’ and Sophie in ‘Howl’s Moving Castle,’ Serin goes out to change her own life—not as a great hero but just as herself. To try. Perhaps Serin is a little misguided about what she already has (who isn’t?) but it is brave to go out and seek your fortune with nothing but an orange umbrella and hope in your heart.

This book is going on a list to read to my niece when she’s a little older. It’s sweet and heartwarming. It’s not going onto my childhood favourites list because I am too old, perhaps, but if you need something to give you hope and warmth in this new year, try ‘The Rainfall Market.’

LK Richardson

January 2025

(pub: Ace Publishing/Penguin, 2025. 224 page enlarged paperback. Price: $19.00 (US). ISBN: 978-0-59395266-5)

check out website: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/775977/the-rainfall-market-by-you-yeong-gwang-translated-by-slin-jung/

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