Jo Jung-rae

Who is Jo Jung-rae?

Jo Jung-rae is a novelist from South Korea, who is the author of the best selling novels The Taeback Mountains, Arirang, and Han River, all published by Hainaim Publishing Co., Ltd.

Jo Jung-Rae has devoted his entire life to literature. His writings attain an excellence that marks him as a world-class author. His popular multi-volume novels Taebaek Mountain Range and Arirang, which have become modern classics since their publication in the 1980s, are considered the epitome of his talent. With the publication of Han River in 2002, Jo completed his trilogy of works on Korean modern history. Sales reached a record-breaking number in Korea-- over 10,000,000 copies.

Since his debut in 1970 in the journal Contemporary Literature, Cho has dealt with a diversity of themes ranging from problems in historical interpretation to the limitations of the individual. Besides his highly successful trilogy Jo has also written short story collections, novellas and full-length novels These early works have been collected and published in a nine-volume series, Complete Works of Jo Jung-Rae. His works have been translated and published in France, Germany, Japan and the U.S. He has been honored many times as a Korean nominee for the Nobel Prize for Literature.