The Cabinet

Nestled within a nondescript office building, Cabinet 13 holds the bizarre secrets of the 'symptomers' – individuals exhibiting peculiar abilities and experiences that hint at the dawning of a new human evolution. For Mr. Kong, a perpetually overworked and world-weary office drone, these files are less about revolutionary biology and more about persistent headaches. His thankless task is to manage the records of these extraordinary beings, a job made especially trying by the symptomer who insists on calling daily, demanding to be transformed into a cat. Un-su Kim masterfully blends the mundane with the fantastical, crafting a darkly humorous and profoundly insightful narrative. Through Mr. Kong’s resigned perspective, the novel explores themes of alienation, bureaucracy, and the uncanny strangeness lurking beneath the surface of everyday life, challenging perceptions of normalcy and humanity itself. It's a whimsical yet poignant exploration of what it means to be different in a world struggling to categorize the inexplicable.