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We had the pleasure of chatting to Jinwoo Park, the author behind Oxford Soju Club, the James Bond Book Club January pick. His debut novel, it is an exploration of identity in the Korean diaspora under the guise of a punch-packing spy thriller. In this interview, Jinwoo discusses the catharsis of the writing process, how his experience as a translator impacts his style, what ‘home’ means to him, and of course— a bit of Bond.
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Tag: james bond book club
The James Bond Book Club Selection For January 2026 Is Oxford Soju Club
Happy New Year from the James Bond Book Club! Here’s to a year of daring missions, unforgettable characters, and stories that keep you turning the page. Get ready to enter new worlds and explore the world of espionage – one thrilling book at a time.
Kicking things off, our January pick is Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park. It’s a bold, genre-blending debut published in 2025 that reimagines the spy novel through the lens of identity, nationality, loyalty and belonging. More than just a good story, this month’s choice looks at the masks we wear, the allegiances we forge, and the truths we hide, all set against the storied spires of Oxford.
OVERVIEW
Oxford Soju Club follows a trio of Korean characters whose lives converge in the ancient university city of Oxford. When North Korean spymaster Doha Kim is mysteriously killed, his protégé Yohan Kim – living under the assumed identity of Junichi Nakamura – scrambles to decipher his mentor’s last cryptic message: “Soju Club, Dr. Ryu.” At the same time, Yunah Choi, a Korean American CIA officer, is hot on his trail, while Jihoon Lim, a South Korean immigrant and owner of the eponymous Soju Club restaurant, finds his own peaceful life drawn into the escalating intrigue.
What unfolds is both a taut spy thriller and a deeply felt exploration of the Korean diaspora in which characters must navigate cultural expectations, divided loyalties, and the haunting distance between the selves they show the world and the selves they carry inside.
WHY WE CHOSE IT
At Ian Fleming Publications, we know a thing or two about going undercover — but Oxford Soju Club interrogates that concept in a much deeper, more human way. Park’s debut resonates with the Bond tradition not through tuxedos or glamour, but through psychological tension and international complexity.
What makes the novel particularly compelling is its exploration of identity and performance. Every character exists between worlds, whether undercover as someone they are not, or trying to belong to a country that never feels like home. These layered lives echo the coded existences of spies in fiction, but here they carry stakes that are profoundly human.
Park delivers the thrills, but with a modern twist: the greatest danger is not always a villain’s plot, but the cost of duty, survival, and the masks we wear.
THEMES TO CONSIDER
– Identity and disguise. Beyond literal espionage, Park explores the psychological “masks” that immigrants and operatives alike adopt to survive and belong.
– Belonging and alienation. Each character’s journey asks: where is home when heritage, duty, and personal desire point in different directions?
– Loyalty and truth. The novel probes the delicate balance between allegiance to one’s origins and self-realisation in a globalised world.
– Ritual, connection, and community. The Soju Club itself, a Korean restaurant in Oxford, becomes a site of refuge and reckoning, a space where food, drink, memory, and politics intertwine.
REVIEWS
The New York Times – ‘Park, a Korean Canadian writer and translator, deftly maps the shifting terrain of characters whose identities are in flux and who are haunted by pasts from which they cannot escape. His novel mixes spycraft with tenderness, violence with grace, and introduces a welcome new spy fiction talent.’
Booklist – ‘In stylistically rich prose, the author carefully portrays complex characters, distilling the intricate workings of the Korean psyche with riveting tension. Under the cover of a compelling espionage drama, Park conducts a metaphorical exploration of Korean identity.’
Shelf Awareness – ‘Oxford Soju Club, is an extraordinarily multilayered examination of identity and loyalty, deftly presented as an addicting spy thriller.’
Washington Independent Review of Books – ‘[A] dizzying, hyperkinetic debut novel.’
Jinwoo Park is a Korean Canadian writer and literary translator whose debut novel brings a fresh, global perspective to espionage fiction. Born and raised in Seoul, he has lived in various parts North America and the UK since the age of eleven. Park completed a master’s degree in creative writing at the University of Oxford and brings both personal insight and narrative finesse to a story that pulsates with tension.
We hope you enjoy Oxford Soju Club as much as we do. Follow our social channels for discussion prompts, highlights and more.
The James Bond Book Club For December 2025 Is The Lifeline
Welcome to our very first James Bond Book Club selection, The Lifeline. This month we’re shining a spotlight on a classic thriller first published in 1946 by Faber. It’s an essential read if you’re a fan of Ian Fleming’s work or love a smart, original, fast-paced spy story.
Republished by Muswell Press in 2024, with an intro from Miles Jupp and David Stenhouse, The Lifeline is the work of English writer Phyllis Bottome. Bottome mentored Ian Fleming in the 1930s and the book is often discussed as a key influence on Fleming’s own spy fiction.
OVERVIEW
The story takes place in Austria in 1938, as Nazism tightens its grip on Europe. Our protagonist, Mark Chalmers, is a teacher at Eton and leads a comfortable and detached life. He adores Austria, where he spends his holidays, but prefers to stay out of the world’s increasing turmoil. Everything shifts when an old friend from the Foreign Office introduces him to the enigmatic “B,” and recruits him for a dangerous mission. Reluctantly, he agrees to parachute into Nazi-occupied Austria to deliver vital intelligence to a British agent, armed only with his orders and, in case of capture, a suicide pill.
Chalmers plans to do the one job then walk away, but once he reaches his destination he’s drawn into the fight against fascism and there is no turning back. Seeing a country he loves under tyranny awakens something in him and what starts as a gripping adventure story becomes a rich, thoughtful study of the psychology of a spy.
WHY WE CHOSE IT
We’ve picked The Lifeline as the first James Bond Book Club recommendation not only because of its exploration of espionage but also because of its connection to Ian Fleming. Phyllis Bottome and her husband, Major Alban Ernan Forbes Dennis (himself a spy), ran a school for languages in Kitzbühelm Austria in the 1920s. Following his shortened stints at Eton and Sandhurst, Ian was sent there to study. By his own account, it was a happy period, spent skiing, mountain climbing, and learning languages, during which he also formed a close bond with Phyllis and her husband. She encouraged Ian to write and he produced his first known short stories here, followed in 1928 by his now-lost book of poetry The Black Daffodil.
Chalmers, The Lifeline‘s protagonist goes on a moral journey and hints at the kind of hero Fleming would later create. Scholars often point to The Lifeline as a spiritual precursor to James Bond, exploring moral complexity and the post-war psyche from a more humanistic angle. It’s thought to have deeply influenced Fleming’s vision of duty, danger, and decency… the DNA of Bond himself.
THEMES TO CONSIDER
– Resistance and morality. Bottome examines how individuals act under oppressive regimes and what it means to live with integrity in dark times.
– Education and empathy. The novel questions education as a means of building character and combating hate. Can empathy be taught?
– Courage in everyday life. Rather than glorifying espionage or violence, The Lifeline celebrates quiet, human bravery, something that contrasts with the more glamorous heroism found in Fleming’s later Bond novels, yet hints at the moral depth Bond would inherit.
REVIEWS
The Financial Times, Best New Thrillers – ‘A cracking read. Top marks to Muswell Press for bringing this book back’
The Times – ‘The real thing…a well-wrought period piece that Fleming completists will enjoy’
Crime Time – ‘Fascinating. A major inspiration for Ian Fleming’s James Bond. A jolly good read.’
The Sunday Post – ‘A thriller of a highly diverting and original kind’
The Time Literary Supplement – ‘A gifted and entertaining novelist’
Starting in 1916, Phyllis Bottome wrote over 30 novels and a series of short stories and novellas, including the anti-Nazi best-seller, The Mortal Storm, based on her experiences of living in Germany. Four of her books have been turned into films, including The Mortal Storm, which became a Hollywood blockbuster starring James Stewart. Her work is currently enjoying a much deserved revival and we are delighted that our friends at Muswell Press are bringing The Lifeline to a new audience. Muswell Press is a small British independent publishing house, owned and run by sisters Kate and Sarah Beal, focused on crime, contemporary fiction, biography and LGBTQ stories.
We hope you enjoy exploring our first James Bond Book Club pick. Follow our social channels for more on the book, and get your copy of The Lifeline at the Ian Fleming Shop here.
For more insights into Ian Fleming’s personal life and history, read Talk of the Devil, an anthology featuring his non-fiction, reviews, letters and two short stories. Available as a hardback, eBook and audiobook.