The Wizard’s Bakery – Paperback

The award-winning, magical Korean bestseller, a dark twist on the healing fiction trend

‘Don’t we all need a little magic in our lives sometimes?’

Open twenty-four hours a day, at first glance The Wizard’s Bakery seems like any ordinary bakery where you can buy bread, cakes, and cookies, with a somewhat grumpy man behind the counter.

At first glance, that is. Because when the young boy who is our protagonist chooses it as a refuge to escape a difficult family situation, the reality he finds is quite different. Baked with the help of a mysterious blue-haired shop assistant, are sweets and pastries with immense powers: madeleines to fix broken hearts, almond bars to unearth memories buried deep within, and cinnamon cookies for your worst enemies.

But each of these items comes with a warning, regardless of the positive or negative effect: the power contained in the treats inevitably alters the order of the world and sometimes produces dramatic consequences for those who consume them, consequences that need to be weighed carefully.

Follow along with our protagonist as he learns about the responsibility that comes with working at this bakery… and most of all, how much people need a little bit magic in their lives.

About the Author

Gu Byeong-mo was born in 1976 in Seoul. She studied Korean language and literature at Kyung Hee University, and worked as an editor. She made her literary debut with the novelWizard Bakery(2009), which won the Changbi Prize.

It became bestseller in Korea and was translated into many languages. Her short story collectionHoping That It Wasn’t Only Me(2015) received the Writer of the Year Award and the Hwang Sun-won Literary Award for New Writers.