Break Room

Eight corporate employees in South Korea compete on a humiliating reality show in this amusing novella from Lee (The Dallergut Dream Department Store). Television producer Il-Kwon has devised a new, Traitors-like series called Break Room that will be filmed over a single week in Seoul. Eight contestants from various companies have been selected by their coworkers to participate but don’t learn until they start filming that their colleagues nominated them based on their “villainous” behavior in the communal break room. Such habits include leaving unwashed dishes in the sink, hoarding instant coffee packets, and delivering unwanted monologues to stressed-out colleagues. Each of the participants is assigned a name that represents their irritating habit; the protagonist, for example, is called “Ice Cube” because he fills up the communal ice trays with cola or coffee. To win a cash prize, the group must band together to identify the producer-planted “imposter” in their midst, forming alliances along the way as they discover what makes their rival contestants tick. Though the stakes are lower than the average mystery, Lee captures the gossipy appeal of reality TV as her characters size up perfect strangers in the name of lining their pockets. Concise, thought-provoking, and entertaining, this goes down smooth. (Apr.)