Nam-Joo, Cho: Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

The multi-million copy selling, international bestseller.

Ms Kim Jiyoung is a sibling made to share a room with her sister while their little brother gets a room of his own.

Ms Kim Jiyoung is a schoolgirl who has to line up behind the boys in the lunch queue. Ms Kim Jiyoung is a daughter whose father blames her for being harassed late at night.  

Ms Kim Jiyoung is a good student who doesn’t get put forward for internships. Ms Kim Jiyoung excels at her job but gets overlooked for promotion. Ms Kim Jiyoung is a wife who gives up her career and independence for a life of domesticity.

Ms Kim Jiyoung has started acting strangely.

Ms Kim Jiyoung is depressed.

Ms Kim Jiyoung is mad.

Ms Kim Jiyoung is her own woman.

Ms Kim Jiyoung is everywoman.

Ms Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is the South Korean sensation which has got the whole world talking. The life story of one young woman born halfway across the globe at the end of the twentieth century raises questions about endemic misogyny and institutional oppression which are relevant to us all.

Riveting, original and uncompromising, this is the most important book to have emerged from South Korea since Han Kang’s The Vegetarian.