English comes easily to Anton Hur, who has translated Korean literary bestsellers such as I Want To Die But I Want To Eat Tteokbokki (Baek Se-hee) and its sequel. However, as with most of us, he has trouble wrapping his head around Gen Z lingo.
“I am not exactly certain what ‘brat’ means, but I think I understand it,” Hur offers in our interview during his stopover for the Singapore Writers Festival (SWF) 2024 in November. “I watched a Bowen Yang sketch on Saturday Night Live that explained what ‘brat’ is/not… It’s such a powerful concept because it’s so versatile and porous.”
Every generation creates a new language, he points out, which is what makes language so exciting. As a translator and author, this enriches his work as well.
Hur was born in Stockholm and grew up in Hong Kong, Ethiopia, and Thailand before returning to Korea. At Korea University, he studied law and psychology, followed by a master’s degree in English literature at Seoul National University. In 2018, he began working as a translator. His first project, The Court Dancer (Shin Kyung-sook), followed the protagonist through her journey towards fame and freedom.
Like the authors he’s worked with, he has built an impressive portfolio and collected a string of accolades. Cursed Bunny (Bora Chung) was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize (2022) and nominated for a National Book Award (2023). Meanwhile, Violets (Shin Kyung-sook) was longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle’s Barrio’s Book In Translation Prize (2022).
Last July, Hur published his first novel, Toward Eternity: A Novel. Lauded by the New York Times for how it “manipulates prose into something like a new language”, it takes place in a near-future world where cancer is eradicated through the use of android and body cells, and explores themes such as humanity, immortality, and technology.
Laughing, he says, “The idea came to me in the shower 10 years ago. I wondered, what if cancer therapy could make you live forever?” He wrote it down as a short story and sent it to his husband, who didn’t approve but offered suggestions.
Hur had planned to write a full-length novel that incorporated these revisions but “I just felt so blocked and ended up putting it away for several years.” Then, after reading Indeterminate Fluorescence (Lee Seong-bok), which he translated, he felt so inspired, he completed the manuscript in just months. Bora Chung is translating Toward Eternity into Korean.
“I wanted to be a writer first,” he confesses. “I thought translation would help me better understand the industry, gain a foothold in publishing houses, and network. I also thought it would enrich my creative process; when you translate a book, you scrutinise it… Yes, it was a very roundabout way to write a book, but it worked out eventually.”
THE TRANSLATOR AS A COLLABORATOR
As a translator, Hur also sees himself as a collaborator, a process he enjoys greatly. Take the sequel to Tteokbokki. “The first book was easier to do, as I focused on not making the author sound too funny. For the second, my instinct was to make it snarky, but I had to redo some bits,” he says.
“I was also concerned about its darker themes, such as suicide ideation, eating disorders, and serious mental health issues. I suggested a content warning at the beginning of the book, which Se-hee kindly wrote exclusively for the English edition. This is one of my favourite parts of the book.”
With its focus on conversations between a dysthymia patient and her psychiatrist, the novel became a bestseller in 2023 all over the world, including Singapore.
“In Korea, mental health often comes up. It is interesting how people in Singapore responded to this work-life balance discourse as well. You seem like you have it all together, with such cool jobs and a happy attitude. The readers here have been supportive and I wanted to come say thanks,” he says.
Hur also stopped to catch up with Shanna Tan, his Singaporean mentee who translated another bestseller, Welcome To The Hyunamdong Bookstore (Hwang Bo-reum). His affection for Tan is generous: “I’m so grateful to Singapore for Shanna and for your love and respect for her work. I know you’re very proud of her too, but I’d like to claim her for Korea.”
Mentorship, he insists, is so important. It keeps the ecosystem healthy and ensures that the best talents can look forward to fulfilling careers. “For Korean literature to continue to thrive, we need the best translators. It doesn’t matter if I translate fewer books. I may not be the best translator for every book; if I feel, say, Shanna, can do it better, I pass it on.”
SWF capped off a very productive year for Hur, whose other works, such as A Magical Girl Retires: A Novel (Park Seol-yeon), I Decided To Live As Me (Kim Su-hyun), and Blood Of The Old Kings (Kim Sung-Il), also hit bookstores in 2024. Little wonder that his goal for 2025 is to “take a month off”.
Besides “so much work that’s under contract right now”, including a Korean novel, Hur is also prepping for a lecture tour at universities like Harvard, Yale, and Boston. However, he will have to juggle all this with judging duties for the International Booker Prize; Hur is the first Korean citizen on the five-member panel.
“That’s, like, a lot of reading. I read for fun but I’m a little uncertain about whether it’s okay to have fun with work. It can get very dangerous very quickly. No matter how busy I am, I try to take some time off; it helps me to feel the moment. Maybe I should find a new hobby in 2025.”
Grab your copy of Toward Eternity here.
