D+Q has acquired World English rights to The Naked Tree, Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s comic adaptation of the beloved Korean novel by Park Wan-seo. We’re so proud to share the book’s cover today! In stores Spring 2023. Acquiring editor Tracy Hurren. Translated by Janet Hong.
Critically acclaimed and award-winning cartoonist Keum suk Gendry-Kim returns with a stunning addition to her body of graphic fiction rooted in Korean history. The Naked Tree paints a stark portrait of a single nation’s fabric slowly torn to shreds by political upheaval and armed conflict. It’s 1951, in the middle of the Korean War, and two young souls are about to fall in love.
Gendry-Kim brings a masterpiece of world literature to life with bold, expressive lines that capture a denuded landscape brutally forced into transition and the people who must find their way back to each other within it.
Keum Suk Gendry-Kim was born in Goheung in Jeolla Province. She has cartooned the graphic novels Grass, The Waiting, La saison des pluies, Jiseul, Jun, The Naked Tree, and more. Grass (Drawn & Quarterly, 2019) appeared on Best of the Year lists from the New York Times and the Guardian, and received the Cartoonist Studio Prize for the Best Print Comic of the Year, the Big Other Book Award for Best Graphic Novel in 2019, the Harvey Award for Best International Book, and the Krause Essay Prize in 2020.
Work in Progress is a new D+Q series to offer a sneak peek into upcoming, not-yet-announced, or previously not scheduled books. Check back often!