The Seoul Letter Shop Review
by Baek Seungyeon
translated by Clare Richards
A Place That Makes a Busy City Feel Less Lonely
ARC Review
Harper Perennial
Publication date: October 6, 2026
I read The Seoul Letter Shop while I was in Korea, which made this one especially fun for me.
The book is full of love stories, and a little letter shop in Seoul is the perfect place for all of them to come together. Not just romantic love. There is love between sisters, the love someone still carries for a spouse who has died, and the love inside a marriage that has settled into decades of routine.
At the center is Hyo-young, who comes to Seoul carrying a lot of anger and disappointment about her sister and about what her own life has become.
A Place That Makes a Busy City Feel Less Lonely
Geulwoll feels a little like a dream of a place.
There are paper, pens, stickers, handwritten letters, regular customers, and people who come in because there are things they cannot quite say out loud.
It reminded me of bookstores and stationery shops I have wandered through in Korea. All those little paper things that feel so wonderfully human. It felt like a place trying to make a very busy city not so lonely. A place where people know your name, notice when you have not been around, and make room for you when you need somewhere to go.
Honestly, it is the kind of place I would love.
All the Different Kinds of Love
Hyo-young's relationship with her sister, Hyo-min, carries much of the hurt in the novel.
I liked Hyo-young as a person, although I did sometimes wonder why she held so much against her sister. As the story went on, I understood more of where that resentment came from. Everyone had believed there were not limits to where Hyo-min could go, almost as though she were invincible, and when her life fell apart, Hyo-young was left carrying so much of the fallout. It also takes time for Hyo-young to understand how badly Hyo-min herself had been hurt.
The other relationships are just as important. One regular comes to the shop while grieving his wife. Another woman works to convince her husband to take their first vacation together in thirty years. The letters give all of them a way to say things they have been holding onto.
A Grown-Up Romance
I really liked Hyo-young and Yeonggwang together.
Their relationship grows quietly through small moments, familiarity, and trust. It never feels overly dramatic, and I liked that neither of them needed constant reassurance from the other.
It felt like a mature relationship, built through trust and showing up for each other rather than big declarations.
Healing Without the Magic
This is absolutely healing fiction, but the healing comes from ordinary life.
People get hurt. Families misunderstand one another. They carry resentment, grieve, fall in love, get tired, and sometimes finally say the things they have not been able to say before.
The book is warm and can be idealized in small moments, but it all comes together.
If you liked The Healing Season of Pottery, I think this will appeal to the same kind of reader. Both are interested in people slowly finding their way back to themselves without any magical realism.
It is really just life.
Clare Richards' Translation
Clare Richards' translation felt natural throughout. Nothing sounded awkward or pulled me out of the story, and the warmth of the letters, the quiet conversations, and all those small relationships came through exactly as they needed to.
If you like healing fiction, quiet relationships, letters, stationery, and stories about people finding their way back to themselves and each other, I think this one is for you.
Definitely worth the read.
I received an advance copy of The Seoul Letter Shop from Harper Perennial. Opinions are my own.
Where to Purchase
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Libro.fm.
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