This kind of imaginative work is so important and so powerful. As you read, you constantly feel that revolutionary, electric shift, between commonplace and nightmarish. Kim Jiyoung’s life is made to seem at once totally commonplace, and nightmarishly over-the-top. 'Jiyoung is no raging feminist, rather a passive vessel, which makes her eventual breakdown all the more powerful, while the calm, matter-of-fact prose style adds to the reader’s growing sense of disquiet.' -Metro 'I loved this novel.

Riveting, original and uncompromising, this is the most important book to have emerged from South Korea since Han Kang's The Vegetarian. The life story of one young woman born at the end of the twentieth century raises questions about endemic misogyny and institutional oppression that are relevant to us all. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is the South Korean sensation that has got the whole world talking. Kim Jiyoung has started acting strangely. Kim Jiyoung is a wife who gives up her career and independence for a life of domesticity.

Kim Jiyoung is a model employee but gets overlooked for promotion. Kim Jiyoung is a good student who doesn't get put forward for internships. Kim Jiyoung is a daughter whose father blames her when she is harassed late at night. Kim Jiyoung is a female preyed upon by male teachers at school. Kim Jiyoung is a sister made to share a room while her brother gets one of his own. Kim Jiyoung is a girl born to a mother whose in-laws wanted a boy. The multi-million copy selling, international bestseller. Author(s): Cho Nam-Joo Jamie Chang (translator)

Kim ji young born 1982 book cover