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  • Employee No. 9 by Kim Hye-Jin book cover
  • Employee No. 9 by Kim Hye-Jin book cover
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Employee No. 9

by Kim Hye-Jin

Work, family, and the cost of endurance

$17.51 USD
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AlbakiReads Editorial

Work, family, and the cost of endurance

A threatened early retirement turns an ordinary financial squeeze into a struggle over status and loyalty. No. 9, a mid-level IT employee who helped build his company, faces mounting family expenses as his employer demotes him and assigns increasingly difficult work. The conflict links workplace power to the pressures of maintaining a household, while framing survival as a choice about whether—and how—to resist a system the novel presents as corrupt. Kim Hye-jin’s story keeps its stakes grounded in employment, family obligation, and the unequal terms on which No. 9 is asked to continue.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in contemporary Korean fiction centered on work and economic pressure.
  • Readers who enjoy stories about family obligations and conflicts with employers or institutions.

Themes

Workplace powerEconomic insecurityFamily responsibilityResistance to corrupt systems

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

With shades of Park Chan-wook's No Other Choice and Choi Jin-young's Hunger, Employee No. 9 runs a psychological gauntlet of money, power, duty, and the daily struggle for survival.

No. 9 is in trouble. His son's college tuition is coming due, his wife needs surgery after taking double shifts at a grocery store, the apartment building they bought as a nest egg is falling apart, and the company he helped build is trying to force him into early retirement. When he refuses, the mid-level IT man is demoted to sales and given increasingly impossible tasks. As his salary dwindles and the humiliations mount, No. 9 must decide where his loyalties lie. If he fights back, how far will the company go to stop him?

With her urgent and timely novel, award-winning Korean author Kim Hye-jin questions how long we can endure a corrupt system. In a rigged game, is there an alternative to playing out your hand?

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I highly recommend to for anyone looking for inner clarity

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