South Korean author Lee Mi-ye's bestselling fantasy novel The Dallergut Dream Department Store will be adapted into a feature by Disney Live Action.
British author and screenwriter Patrick Ness is on board to adapt the screenplay. Ness is best known for his books for young adults, including the Chaos Walking trilogy and A Monster Calls, both of which he has adapted for the screen.Wildfire, the novel's English-language publisher in Britain, shared the news of the project recently on Instagram.
The runaway bestseller has sold more than one million copies in Korea, becoming the first Korean novel published in the 2020s to reach that milestone. It has since been translated and published in more than 20 languages and territories, with worldwide sales exceeding two million copies, according to the publisher.
The first installment in a trilogy, The Dallergut Dream Department Store follows Penny, an enthusiastic new hire at Dallergut, a mysterious department store that sells dreams ranging from childhood memories and culinary fantasies to ice-skating adventures and visions of stardom. Dreams of flying are almost always sold out.
But when strange and dangerous things begin to happen to the sleeping clientele, Penny sets out to uncover the mystery before the nightmare spreads beyond the store.The story continues in the sequel, Return To The Dallergut Dream Department Store, while a prequel explores the story of store owner Dallergut as a 19-year-old struggling with insomnia.
Lee's path to becoming an author was as magical as her novel. An engineering major, she worked for five years as a semiconductor engineer at Samsung Electronics before taking a leap of faith to pursue writing. Lee said the idea for The Dallergut Dream Department Store grew from her fascination with dreams.
"People often consider sleeping a waste of time, especially when they are deeply focused on something in real life. But adequate sleep is essential for our brains, and I wanted to add another good reason for why humans spend a third of our lives asleep," she said.
"The idea of offering pleasant dreams to people struck me as romantic, and I wanted to share my imagination with readers." – The Korea Herald/Asia News Network
