Sabrina T. Rudolph, center, speaks with local readers about her work at the K-pop Romance booth of the Leipzig Book Fair in Germany, March 20. Korea Times photo by Jung Seung-im
Fresh off an MBA in the United States, Min Seo-hee begins a new chapter in Seoul as a manager at a Korean entertainment agency. It is there that she meets Lim Tae-jun of the K-pop boy group Millions, setting in motion a tumultuous romance that surges and crashes like waves.
This story, which some might find a bit corny, lies at the heart of "The Millions," a romance novel series displayed at the K-pop Romance booth of the Leipzig Book Fair in Germany last month.
The first impression is that K-pop has carved out a place at one of Germany’s largest book fairs, widely regarded as a counterpart to the Frankfurt Book Fair. The sight stood out even more amid the overwhelming presence of Japanese manga across the exhibition hall.
But assuming the author is Korean simply because the story revolves around K-pop would be a mistake. The writer behind the series is 39-year-old German author Sabrina T. Rudolph, a devoted fan of Super Junior who spent a year and a half living in Seoul in 2011.
Her experience in Korea later became a driving force for the novel series. In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, her sister Anja and friend Sahar suggested that she write a romance novel inspired by K-pop — and that is how it all began.
They quickly launched a publishing company called InVision Publishing, raised funds through crowdfunding and published the first novel in the series, "A Million Beginnings."
The characters’ names in the series, all distinctly Korean in tone, were chosen with great care, she said.
“I drew on my own memories, a sense of familiarity and sounds that I naturally found beautiful when creating the names,” Rudolph said. “For example, the name of the main character, Tae-jun, carries the meaning of a towering figure, as suggested by the Chinese characters.”
Since making her debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2023, Rudolph has been introducing her books at various book fairs across Germany and meeting local readers. More recently, she also released an English edition to connect with more readers around the world. At this year’s Leipzig Book Fair, she even held a reading session where she met fans of her books in person.
Source: Korea Times News
