The Midnight Timetable
Bora Chung author Anton Hur translator
Format:Hardback
Publisher:John Murray Press
Publishing:2nd Oct '25
£14.99
This title is due to be published on 2nd October, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback - Signed Edition£14.99(9780349705170-S)
The highly anticipated new novel from Bora Chung, author of the National Book Award finalist and International Booker Prize shortlisted Cursed Bunny
In a labyrinthine research facility where those who open the wrong door might find it's disappeared behind them, or that the echoing footsteps they're running from are their own, an unnamed protagonist begins their night shift under the watchful eye of the building's enigmatic senior guard.
Each evening, as the fluorescent lights hum and the silence grows heavier, the guard shares another story - of cursed objects hidden behind security glass, of lives unspooled by vengeance, sorrow or revelation. These tales are not mere ghost stories. They're warnings. Lessons. Or perhaps confessions.
As the nights stretch on and reality frays, the protagonist starts to suspect that the building itself is alive with malevolent intent - that the objects aren't just cursed, but waiting. Watching.
Equal parts bone-chilling, wryly funny and deeply political, The Midnight Timetable is a masterful work of literary horror from one of our time's greatest imaginations.
'Disturbing, chilling, wrenching, and absolute genius' Frances Cha on Cursed Bunny
Clever, scary and wickedly funny. I inhaled Bora Chung's book of ghost stories and then slept with the light on! -- Avni Doshi, author of BURNT SUGAR
Like the objects collected in this deliciously haunting book, The Midnight Timetablewill absorb you in the shadows of its imagination, marvellous oddness, humour and heart. It's a wild midnight tour of a uniquely brilliant and exquisitely demented world, terrifying and enchanting-a world I did not want to leave! -- Gerardo Sámano Córdova, author of MONSTRILIO
Electrifying. A feast of a book. Strange, hypnotic and audacious. -- Irenosen Okojie, author of CURANDERA
I love the creatures who populate the Haunted Institute of Bora Chung's mind―handkerchiefs with vendettas, jackets that weep in marbles, wounded, oracular sheep. The Midnight Timetable is enigmatic, wild and fun, even while making deep and provocative points about the dark joys suffering makes available. A fascinating novel of shifting realities centred by a steady, humane heart. Bora Chung is a master of concocting dreamscapes that linger. -- Marie-Helene Bertino, author of BEAUTYLAND
How can Bora Chung tickle me, delight me while dropping me deep into uneasiness? Why am I giggling while looking for new shadows over my shoulder? These ghost stories take what's familiar and give them very human dimensions-a lover's betrayal, a mother's love, a son's greed, or a worker's simple curiosity-so that they mist off the page and leave the real world hazy and askew when we look up. I left this book respecting the untold histories of objects and I will never look at tennis shoes again without thinking of sheep. -- ’Pemi Aguda, author of GHOSTROOTS
Beautiful, eerie stories that are unpredictable and sprawl endlessly. -- Kang Hwa-gil, author of ANOTHER PERSON
The keen insights into a society and the nonstop pacing of the folk tales kept me on the edge of my seat. -- Kim Bo-young, author of National Book Award-longlisted ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES AND OTHER STORIES
Haunting, funny, gross, terrifying-and yet when we reach the end, we just want more. -- Alexander Chee on CURSED BUNNY
Bora Chung's stories glisten at the border of our weird world, and all our other weird worlds. A truly sublime book. -- Samantha Hunt on YOUR UTOPIA
Chung builds out her stories with imagination, absurdity and a dry sense of humor, all applied with X-Acto knife precision. -- NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW on YOUR UTOPIA
[A] get-under-your-skin collection -- LITHUB on CURSED BUNNY
Frightening, fantastical and oddly funny . . . Absurdist horror with a feminist slant. -- PEN America on CURSED BUNNY
ISBN: 9780349705170
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
208 pages