Midnight Timetable

A Novel in Ghost Stories

De: Bora Chung, Anton Hur - translator

Narrado por: Greta Jung

From the author and translator of the National Book Award finalist and Booker Prize shortlisted Cursed Bunny, comes a novel-in-ghost-stories, set in a mysterious research center that houses cursed objects, where those who open the wrong door might find it’s disappeared behind them, or that the echoing footsteps they’re running from are their own…

The acclaimed Korean horror and sci-fi writer’s goosebump-inducing new book follows an employee on the night shift at the Institute. They soon learn why some employees don't last long at the center. The handkerchief in Room 302 once belonged to the late mother of two sons, whose rivalry imbues the handkerchief with undue power and unravels the lives of those who seek to possess it. Meanwhile a live-streaming, ghost-chasing employee steals a cursed sneaker down the hall, but later finds he can’t escape its tread. The cat in Room 206 begins to reveal the crimes of its former family, wanting to understand its own path to the Institute’s dimly lit halls.

But Chung's haunted institute isn't just a chilling place to play. As in her astounding collections Cursed Bunny and Your Utopia, these violent allegories subtly excavate the horrors of animal cosmetic testing, “conversion therapy,” domestic abuse, and late-stage capitalism. Equal parts bone-chilling, wryly funny, and deeply political, Midnight Timetable is a masterful work of literary horror from one of our time's greatest imaginations.

©2025 Bora Chung (P)2025 Algonquin Books

Reseñas de la Crítica

“I love the creatures who populate the Haunted Institute of Bora Chung's mind—handkerchiefs with vendettas, jackets that weep in marbles, wounded, oracular sheep. Midnight Timetable is enigmatic, wild, and fun, even while making deep and provocative points about the dark joys suffering makes available. A fascinating novel of shifting realities centered by a steady, humane heart. Bora Chung is a master of concocting dreamscapes that linger.”—Marie-Helene Bertino, author of Beautyland

"The keen insights into a society and the nonstop pacing of the folk tales kept me on the edge of my seat.”—Kim Bo-Young, author of National Book Award-longlisted On the Origin of Species and Other Stories

"Beautiful, eerie stories that are unpredictable and sprawl endlessly."—Kang Hwa-gil, author of Another Person