THE CURIOUS TALE OF MANDOGI'S GHOST, by Kim Sok-pom. Columbia University Press, 2010, 114 pp., $24.50 (paper)

Like the Indian novelist R.K. Narayan, who repeatedly set his characters down in the kitchens, back alleys and yards of his very own magical creation — the city of Malgudi — Korean writer Kim Sok-pom returns time and again in his work to the island of Cheju-do.

Where Narayan's location was fictional, Kim's is brutally real, springing from the experience of the zainichi, Koreans brought to Japan as forced labor during the colonial period.

A significant minority, they face the dual identity challenge of having to balance their Korean heritage with Japanese residency and an association with either North or South Korea.