The Seoul Letter Shop

A touching testament to the power of letter writing and connecting with strangers, for fans of Days at the Morisaki Bookshop and What You're Looking For is in the Library.

Hyoyoung feels trapped in her small hometown after her dreams of becoming a filmmaker have been dashed, and so when a friend asks her to come and work at his boutique letter shop in Seoul’s Yeonhui-dong district, she jumps at the chance.

The shop is stocked with irresistible pens, papers and envelopes, and Hyoyoung is soon beguiled by its charms. She is particularly intrigued by the shop’s pen pal service, where customers can pick up an anonymous letter to read, as long as they agree to write an anonymous letter in return. Hyoyoung observes the shop’s customers secret correspondence with each other, as they express their deepest fears and most ardent desires to people they've never met. Each of the customers has their own story to tell, and as her connection with them deepens, it’s not long before Hyoyoung discovers the healing, transformative power of the handwritten letter herself …

About the author

Baek Seungyeon is Korean writer based in Seoul. She majored in Creative Writing and Literature and is a rising talent first discovered through the Munhaksasan Writing Program in 2017. The Seoul Letter Shop is her debut novel. It was published in Korea by Toyou’s Dream in 2024 and has since been translated into sixteen other languages, including English, Italian, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Finnish.