After graduation, Kim was an office worker by day, a translator at night, and spent the remainder of his time writing novels.

[4] Kim made his debut in 1993 with a poem in the journal Jakka Segye (Writer's World) and the next year published a novel Walking While Pointing to the Mask (Gamyeon-eul Gariki-myeo Geotgi).

[5] Kim's literary world is shaped by his study of humanities and at the same time owes much to the Argentinian writer, Jorge Luis Borges, whose influence is paramount in his first collection of short stories, Twenty Years Old.

Goodbye, Yi Sang is concerned with the question of truth and of existence as well as the very definition of literature which, in Kim's view, are not mutually exclusive.

Although it was written with considerable ease and employs much lighter tone of voice than Goodbye, Yi Sang, the stories in this collection provide yet another venue for exploring the nature of truth, which has always remained the focus of Kim's interest.