Flowers of Mold & Other Stories

the long version

A woman meets her next-door neighbor and loans her a spatula, then starts suffering horrific gaps in her memory. A man, feeling jilted by an unrequited love, becomes obsessed with sorting through his neighbors' garbage in the belief that it will teach him how to better relate to people. A landlord decides to raise the rent, and his tenants hatch a plan to kill him at a team-building retreat. Ha Sŏng-nan's stories seem pleasant enough, yet there's something disturbing just below the surface, ready to permanently disrupt the characters' lives. Among the stories: a woman lends her neighbor a spatula, then starts having gaps in her memory; in a team-building retreat, tenants plan to kill their landlord after he raises the rent. They are ordinary individuals-- in an increasingly urbanized and fragmented world. -- adapted from back cover