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The Poet
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  • Published: 20 October 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529986112
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 176
  • RRP: $24.00

The Poet

Formats & editions
Paperback
20 Oct 2026
Tr. Paperback
15 June 2022
EBook
2 June 2022
Audiobook
2 June 2022
Paperback
1 Aug 2023
Paperback
1 Aug 2002
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Experience a BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Yi Mun-yol, one of Korea’s greatest modern writers, in this haunting portrait of a wandering poet torn between art, poverty, and destiny

The life of a poet becomes a parable of hope in Yi Mun-yol’s searching novella of art, status and selfhood.

With their family condemned as traitors, two young brothers are sent away in disguise to save their lives. One grows up by his wits, accepting what has been lost. The other is set on a different path, shaped by a determination to restore the family’s place in the world. As he wanders in search of recognition as a poet, ambition and survival begin to pull him in opposing directions.

BRIEF ENCOUNTERS: classic novellas and captivating stories, to be read in a single sitting or savoured over days
  • Published: 20 October 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529986112
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 176
  • RRP: $24.00
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About the authors

Yi Mun-Yol

Yi Mun-Yol was born in 1948. During the Korean War (1950-3), his father supported the North Korea side for ideological reasons and went to live in the North, leaving his family in the South. In his youth, Yi Mun-Yol had to bear the stigma of being a 'traitor's son'. With more than 30 books published and sales totalling many millions of copies, Yi Mun-Yol is Korea's leading novelist. The Poet, his most signficant novel, has been translated into all the major western languages.
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Praise for The Poet

I devoured it both as a breath-taking, page-turning novel on betrayal and a series of startling poems, chiselled from bone. The Poet is going to e x p l o d e into 2022 and leave us all spilt and shuddering! Astounding book.

Helen Paris

A thunderstorm of female power with nods to the greatest poets of all time. Drop everything and read.

Ericka Waller

Superb . . . Raw, angry and utterly compelling . . . The writing is stunning - I hope it'll put verse novels on the map.

Hush - Five Unmissable Books for 2022

Brilliant and beautifully written. It'll have you raging and rejoicing till the very last page.

Manjeet Mann, winner of the Costa Children's Book Award 2021

This is the book I have always needed, it is F*****G BRILLIANT and everyone should read it.

Nikita Gill

A novel in verse about poetry, female desire and achievement, gender politics and revenge, it weeps, rages and triumphs in words as exquisite as emotion. Loved it.

Julie Cohen

A beautiful, biting page-turner... is it any different for young women, these days? Reid's novel provides -- as the best fiction does -- a nuanced, thought provoking answer to this question.

Irish Times

Brisk, disturbing and very satisfying

Daily Mail

We've never read anything quite like this before... the poetry sings so beautifully... you'll be completely submerged

Cosmopolitan

Written in verse and wildly original, this passionate tale of coercive control and female solidarity is nothing short of a work of art.

Zoella

Rage fuelled and propulsive The Poet is a ferocious force of a novel written in searingly potent verse. I adored it and can't stop thinking about it. Recommending to everyone .

Molly Aitken, author of The Island Child