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Employee No. 9, a middle-aged middle manager, is in trouble. His son is off to college, his wife has taken double shifts at a local grocery store, and now the company where he's worked for more than three decades pressures him to retire. When he refuses, a series of demotions and humiliations follow. A lifelong deskman now reduced to selling internet service door-to-door in the remote countryside, he fails to meet his quota and is tasked with constructing a high-voltage electric tower in a protected wildlife area. As struggles ensue, he has no choice but to ask himself where his loyalties ultimately lie.
“Employee No. 9 is unflinching in its raw depiction of the way capitalism can shrink a life down to an endless parade of small humiliations. With writing as unrelenting and controlled as the invisible company at the center of this novel, Kim shows us the horror of living in a broken world that forces us to choose the false promise of agency over our dignity. I couldn’t look away.”
— Ling Ling Huang, author of Immaculate Conception and Natural Beauty
“Kim Hye-jin’s deft and unsparing portrayal of late-stage capitalism in Korea takes on an almost Beckettian flair in its exploration of the decent, unremarkable man caught in the gears of the machine with seemingly no way out.”
— Marie Myung-Ok Lee, author of Somebody’s Daughter and The Evening Hero
“Author Kim Hye-jin and translator Jamie Chang bring an extraordinary work of literature in Employee No. 9. A portrait of labor, identity, and desperation in modern corporate life, the novel explores a world shaped by inequality and the erosion of workers’ rights. Employee No. 9 captures a growing global unease surrounding labor and survival while remaining deeply rooted in the realities of contemporary Korean society.”
— E. J. Koh, author of The Liberators and The Magical Language of Others
“A searing critique of the workplace culture in an ultra-modern society like South Korea, where the race for higher profits trumps human dignity. Its powerful narrative reverberates long after the last page.”
— Wondra Chang, author of Sonju, nominated for the National Book Award