In "The Old Hatter", (translated into English by Brother Anthony) young boys play pranks on the last traditional artisan in their village. The Old Hatter’s grandfather had made four hats for kings. It is only after they mature that the boys realize his greatness. The gat, the traditional hat made from horsehair or very fine bamboo strips and worn over a man’s top knot, had been outlawed by the Japanese years ago along with the top knot itself. Nevertheless, the gat was still worn by a few men in their out of the way village at the start of the story. In the end, he had no customers for his final masterpiece, so he burns it at the grave of the man he hoped to give it to in life. He himself dies soon after. "The Old Hatter", is one of 16 stories in a compilation called "You Can't Go Home Again." Associated commentary noted that this compilation written "on the theme of the modern Korean's loss of his home town in the physical, spiritual, and psychological senses, reveals [Yi's] obstinate conservatism but also his genuine and deep regret over the passing not only of a way of life but the frame of mind that created and sustained that way of life." Yi has stated that his observations of life in Dudeul Village, his hometown in early life, were the primary inspiration for these stories"."