FAMILIAR THINGS

Fourteen-year-old Bugeye, whose large stature, hot-headed temperament and readiness with his fists make him seem at least sixteen, relocates with his mother to a shack at the edge of Flower Island, an enormous mountain of rubbish on the outskirts of Seoul.

Life on Flower Island is a backbreaking, grimy, dangerous existence, permeated by the stench of decaying rubbish - yet there is food, work and shelter, and mother and son find some respite from the ever-present threat of eviction back in the city.

Translated from the Korean by Sora Kim-Russell.