The Heart of the Nhaga: Book One of the Bird That Drinks Tears – Korea's Most Celebrated Fantasy Epic Translated into English at Last poster

The Heart of the Nhaga: Book One of the Bird That Drinks Tears – Korea's Most Celebrated Fantasy Epic Translated into English at Last

By Young-do, Lee

First published 2026

Welcome to Lee Young-do’s epic classic series, The Bird That Drinks Tears. The master of Korean fantasy—often cited as the J.R.R. Tolkien of South Korea—Lee Young-do has created a tale of castles built on the backs of flying mantas, giant birdmen, heartless immortals, and a quest that will change the very nature of the world and its gods, available for the first time in English by award-winning translator Anton Hur. The world is divided by the Line of Limit. To the north are the Tokkebi—fire people able to manipulate flames as both weapons and illusions; Rekon—giant birdmen with immense strength and warrior acumen; and the humans—as divided as the other races are unified. To the south are the Nhaga—a reptilian people who relinquish their hearts for immortality. For centuries, the races didn’t cross that line, but change is in the air. A Nhaga is being sent North…and a trio is being dispatched to make sure this agent from the South makes it out alive—one from each race. But the illusion of a simple journey is quickly dispelled by the fact that the Tokkebi is merely a scholar, not an adventurer; the Rekon is deathly afraid of water; and the human hunts and eats Nhaga.

Published
2 Jun 2026
Pages
448
Publisher
Harper Voyager
Edition
Hardcover
Elsewhere
Open Library
  • Fantasy
  • Science Fiction
  • Adventure

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