International Booker interview: How Sora Russell and Youngjae Bae translated ‘Mater 2-0’ from Korean

Sora Kim Russell and Youngjae J Bae translate from the Korean into English. Their co-translation of Hwang Sok-yong’s Mater 2-10 is shortlisted for the 2024 International Booker Prize.

Mater 2-10 is centred on three generations of a family of rail workers and a laid-off factory worker staging a high-altitude sit-in. The novel vividly depicts the lives of ordinary working Koreans, starting from the Japanese colonial era, continuing through Liberation, right up to the 21st century. The prize jury has described it as “a sweeping and comprehensive book about a Korea we rarely see in the West, blending the historical narrative of a nation with an individual’s quest for justice…”

Sora Kim-Russell has also translated works by Pyun Hye-young, Kim Un-su, Hwang Sok-yong, and Bae Suah, among others. Her translation of Pyun Hye-young’s The Hole won the 2017 Shirley Jackson Award for best novel, while her translation of Hwang Sok-yong’s other novel – At Dusk – was longlisted for the 2018 International Booker Prize.

Youngjae Josephine Bae is the winner of the 2019 LTI Korea Award for Aspiring Translators and the 2021 Korea Times Literature Translation Award. She has also translated two non-fiction titles: Imaginary Athens and A Global History of Ginseng.

The translator duo spoke about the author Hwang Sok-yong and their experience translating his book, Mater 2-10.

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