No one went crazy.

Authors Pyun Hye-young, Choi Jin-young, Jeong Han-ah, Joung Bo-ra, Ye So-yeon · Publisher Changbi · Publication Date 2026-06-24 · ISBN 9788936439972

About the Book

Reading women’s anxieties and anger,
and their passionately living desires

Pyun Hye-young, who has depicted the intimate human mind and everyday violence with intense imagery, opens this collection of short stories with "The Economy of Cultivation." After “I” am severely injured falling from a retaining wall, my older sister, “Seok-mi,” suggests a non-moving labor. To receive disability benefits by feigning paraplegia, I must sit in a wheelchair, doing nothing and feeling nothing. Seok-mi, who insists that "nothing is more uneconomical" than reaping what you sow, performs her unique caregiving labor to deceive the insurance investigator. As time passes, the siblings’ increasingly bizarre labor raises fundamental questions about disability, poverty, gender, and caregiving in a capitalist market where even the body becomes a commodity.
Choi Jin-young, who vividly conveys her characters' voices with delicate sensibility and a keen worldview, asks in "Are You Listening?" whether we can truly understand others through the story of Geum-ok, for whom merely surviving has become painful. Geum-ok, unable to endure her team leader's torment, decides to quit her job and leaves a message for her mother, Ae-jeong. Receiving her daughter's call, Ae-jeong reflects on the years she chased the illusion of a "harmonious family." Blaming her own foolishness for repeatedly being betrayed by her husband, family, and society, she tries to soothe her daughter, telling her to just endure for one more day, but Geum-ok only confirms that she can no longer bear it.

Jeong Han-ah's "Women's Mountain" illuminates the twisted beliefs of people gripped by madness, set against an old, dilapidated prayer retreat. After an unexpected accident forces "I" to close the academy I ran, I visit the fasting retreat where I lived with my family as a child. Why do the events unfolding in these two utterly different spaces—the retreat and the academy—somehow seem similar? Amidst people fervently praying, craving miraculous healing and caregiving predicated on sacrifice, "I" suddenly realizes the strangeness of the situation surrounding me. Jeong Han-ah's unique narrative, which sharply captures the aftermath of loss with compelling storytelling, chillingly and clearly reveals the absurdity of "I" who has feigned a "mother's heart."

Joung Bo-ra, who has captivated readers worldwide by depicting the contradictions of life with genre-bending imagination, portrays the oppression inflicted upon women in "The Shattering Woman" through fragmented scene descriptions and the character's perception. "I," who makes a living working as a hostess at funeral homes and for cleaning companies, gains a regular customer. In a situation where I need to secure rent, utilities, phone bills, and child support for the child my ex-husband took, meeting the "madam" who requests cleaning once a week was a welcome development. That was certainly true until one day I found an unidentified white, round object on the floor of her house, and after that, my entire daily life began to crumble.

Finally, Ye So-yeon's "Life and Breath" depicts a mother's struggle to understand the actions of her son, Yoon-beom, who has entered a juvenile detention center. "I" simply couldn't believe that my seemingly well-behaved child, who came from my own womb, had committed a crime. After much deliberation, I turn on my son's phone. I thought I could better understand the situation by meeting "Hanna," whom I learned about through my son's messenger. However, unsettling events unfold one after another during a night spent with Hanna. At the moment the imperfect bond of family loosens, a strange imagination that stimulates tension rapidly grows, shaking the senses of everyday life. Ye So-yeon's prose, which testifies to the sensibilities of the era and elegantly portrays the raw emotions, shines brightly.

'Everyone was mad, and no one was mad'
A story that shines brilliantly with the pleasure of overturning conventions

Virginia Woolf, a writer who shook the foundations of 20th-century British literature and suffered from neurological disorders throughout her life, left behind the words, "Any woman born with a great gift in the sixteenth century would certainly have gone mad." The reason why this declaration from over a century ago still resonates with us living in the 21st century is probably because women's language, history, politics, and literature are still struggling against social oppression to find answers. Perhaps women of our time are surviving by using anger and madness as energy amidst incessant discrimination, exclusion, and hatred.
『No One Was Mad』 is a book that inherits Virginia Woolf's declaration and envisions a new future with literary imagination. It illuminates the emotions women feel today from multiple perspectives, while five stories that kick away the frames superimposed on gender radically overturn old conventions. The terrifyingly beautiful madness of the characters in these stories finally testifies to the most vibrant and brilliant women alive.

Author's Note

The stories of women who try to escape from life only to collapse, women who didn't ask for much in life but weren't even given that, are always the saddest stories I encounter. ― Pyun Hye-young

Between quiet and peaceful love, there is also such noisy love. Unwritten voices abound. Something is still simmering. ― Choi Jin-young

I wanted to depict a place where we could escape together. Whether it was comfort, confession, or another form of evasion, I still don't know. ― Jeong Han-ah

Oppression breaks people's hearts. Such a world drives women mad. ― Joung Bo-ra

And so, together, we explore the labyrinth, striving to find a ray of light. That was quite a pleasant thing to imagine. ― Ye So-yeon

From the Book

My sister learned a lesson. That to make money, one must invest time. She also learned that investing only time was meaningless. One had to offer up body parts like arms and legs as a price.
― Pyun Hye-young, "The Economy of Cultivation" (p. 13)

When I asked why she had to go to such lengths, my sister scanned me as if to ask why I would even ask such a question. It seemed she wanted to believe that she was truly unable to move, having been deceived by her own truth.
― Pyun Hye-young, "The Economy of Cultivation" (p. 25)

There was only one thing I, who had made myself a sinner to save myself, could say.
You'll never understand.
― Choi Jin-young, "Are You Listening?" (p. 63)

Did you really have to go that far?
I murmur a belated answer.
I'm not the one who should be asked that question.
― Choi Jin-young, "Are You Listening?" (p. 64)

The woman truly believed it would happen that way. Every moment, she was careful not to let that belief leave her. She knew that the moment she lost faith, everything would be over.
― Jeong Han-ah, "Women's Mountain" (p. 94)

She was suddenly seized with fear. She couldn't let anyone discover she was mad.
But what should she do now?
She didn't know.
She knew nothing.
― Joung Bo-ra, "The Shattering Woman" (pp. 144-45)

Even though we lived together, I had no idea what kind of person he was anymore. That drove me crazy. So I wanted to find out.
― Ye So-yeon, "Life and Breath" (p. 161)

Listening to the rich laughter of children on the giant rabbit slide, we apologized to each other, though we didn't know precisely what the apology was for. But we just did it. Because, as a family, we were supposed to feel sorry and be okay.
― Ye So-yeon, "Life and Breath" (p. 192)

Table of Contents

Pyun Hye-young ― The Economy of Cultivation / Author's Note
Choi Jin-young ― Are You Listening? / Author's Note
Jeong Han-ah ― Women's Mountain / Author's Note
Joung Bo-ra ― The Shattering Woman / Author's Note
Ye So-yeon ― Life and Breath / Author's Note