What are you willing to trade for a miracle? Your life, or someone else’s? And if that’s the price, then which lives are worth saving? These questions lie at the heart of Cho Yeeun’s debut full-length novel, “Shift,” which won the grand prize at the 4th Kyobo Bookstore Story Contest in 2016 and is newly published by U.K.-based imprint Honford Star with an English translation by Yewon Jung. The setup of “Shift” is immediately compelling: Detective Yi Chang, whose sister’s life was prolonged by a miracle 10 years ago, now needs another one to save his niece, who suffers from the same ailment. His biggest lead is a corpse covered in malignant tumors, found in a secluded beach hideout. The more Yi Chang — and the reader — learns about the truth behind that long-ago event, the more he realizes that miracles aren’t such an innocent matter — that even the smallest blessing can incur a terrible price. Divided into three sections, “Shift” first follows Yi Chang in his quest, then turns its attention to a young man named Lan who holds the secret to the much-coveted mir
