Though he became a fiction writer at a relatively late age, Kim writes with flair and the dexterity of a seasoned novelist. Grounded in his journalistic background, his writing style is polished and unsentimental, and Kim crafts his sentences masterfully to infuse lyrical rhythm to his work without sacrificing clarity and poise. His job as a journalist, which required him to rush to the scenes of disaster, has also given him an insight into the psyches of people in stressful situations. Kim's ability to identify pertinent details and moments of significance in the chaos of life-or-death situations, which he perfected in his line of work as a reporter, can be seen in his first novel, "Memories of Earthenware with Comb Teeth Pattern". Written in the form of a detective story involving the mysterious death of a firefighter, the novel presents a palpably real portrait of the battle with raging fire, and investigates the intensity of human emotions in dire circumstances with acuity, subtlety and insight. In his second novel, "Song of the Sword", Kim gives us a powerful picture of General Yi Sun-sin, not as a mere war-hero, but as an ordinary man facing extraordinary circumstances and struggling with the complexity of his own interior landscape. His next novel
Song of Strings focuses on the life of the renowned musician Ureug who lived more than fifteen hundred years ago during the Shilla period.
Namhansanseong () is his latest work and has sold almost 1 million copies in South Korea. It is based on the incident known as
Byeongjahoran, during the
Second Manchu invasion of Korea in 1636, when
King Injo of
Joseon Dynasty took refuge in the
Namhan Mountain Fortress in
Gyeonggi Province, in an ill-fated attempt to defy the rule of the
Manchu Qing Empire Hong Taiji, following the
First Manchu invasion of Korea in 1627. In 2017, it was adapted into a film entitled
The Fortress, under the production company Siren Pictures of his own daughter Kim Ji-yeon. In 2009 a
musical also titled,
Namhansanseong was based on the novel, but focuses on the lives of common people and their spirit of survival during harsh situations. It stars
Yesung of
boy band Super Junior as villain "Jung Myung-soo", a servant-turned-interpreter. It was shown from 14 to 31 October at
Seongnam Arts Center Opera House. In 2011 Kim's work "Schwertgesang" (translated by Heidi Kang and Ahn So-hyun) won the
Daesan Award for Translated Literature.
Translated works Language; German Title: Schwertgesang Original title: 칼의 노래 Genre: Modern/ Fiction Publisher: Edition Delta Translated by: Heidi Kang Language: French Title: Le Chant Du Sabre Original title: 칼의 노래 Genre: Modern/ Fiction Publisher: Gallimard Translated by : Yang Young-Nan, François Théron Language: English Title: From Powder to Powder Genre: Modern/ Fiction In: Land of Exile ==Awards==