The Last Chance Convenience Store

About

A pandemic has hit Seoul, and seventy-year-old Mrs. Yeom has left her convenience store near Seoul Station in the care of her troubled son Minsik. A new night-shift employee arrives: Hwang Geun-bae, a clumsy, endearing man in his forties who prefers to go by a different name entirely. Over fluorescent-lit nights, he helps a young job-seeker regain confidence, nudges a local business owner to adapt, and forces Minsik to face what he’s been avoiding. Kim Ho-yeon’s sequel to The Second Chance Convenience Store is a million-copy Korean bestseller, and its warmth is earned rather than manufactured: these are people who have been overlooked by everyone except each other. The convenience store — open all night, stocked with instant noodles and small mercies — is the kind of place that shouldn’t matter. It matters more than anything.