Love in the Big City
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- 75,00 kr
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- 75,00 kr
Publisher Description
A funny, transporting, surprising, and poignant novel that was one of the highest-selling debuts of recent years in Korea, Love in the Big City tells the story of a young gay man searching for happiness in the lonely city of Seoul
Love in the Big City is the English-language debut of Sang Young Park, one of Korea’s most exciting young writers. A runaway bestseller, the novel hit the top five lists of all the major bookstores, went into twenty-six printings, and was praised for its unique literary voice and perspective. It is now poised to capture a worldwide readership.
Young is a cynical yet fun-loving Korean student who pinballs from home to class to the beds of recent Tinder matches. He and Jaehee, his female best friend and roommate, frequent nearby bars where they push away their anxieties about their love lives, families, and money with rounds of soju and ice-cold Marlboro Reds that they keep in their freezer. Yet over time, even Jaehee leaves Young to settle down, leaving him alone to care for his ailing mother and to find companionship in his relationships with a series of men, including one whose handsomeness is matched by his coldness, and another who might end up being the great love of his life.
A brilliantly written novel that takes us into the glittering nighttime of Seoul and the bleary-eyed morning after with both humor and emotion, Love in the Big City is a wry portrait of millennial loneliness as well as the abundant joys of queer life.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
You can feel the urgency bouncing off the pages of Sang Young Park’s electrifying debut, one of the first gay novels ever published in South Korea. Love in the Big City’s massive popularity in that country—it sold out nine printings—speaks to a seismic shift in attitudes towards queer experiences. There’s also the universal appeal of the novel’s twentysomething narrator, Young, and his search for love and meaning in a vast urban playground. Told in four parts, this exuberant and poignant story takes us along for the ride as Young navigates affairs, friendships, and his fraught relationship with his mother. This is a frenetic, can’t-miss chronicle of young adulthood in all its uncertainty and joy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Park's stunning English-language debut takes readers through the wild highs and lows of young adulthood with the story of a gay man, his erstwhile female best friend, and his search for love. Young and Jaehee share a studio apartment in Seoul, where they work odd jobs, spend money they don't have, compare notes on the men they're dating ("His hair is so long he has it in two braids. He looks just like a doll. It's hilarious when we have sex," Jaehee says about one of them). They support each other after heartbreaks and nightmarish encounters, such as an intruder Jaehee lays out with a high kick. After Jaehee moves in with her safe but boring fiancé, marking the end of the pair's "vagabond" years, Young moves back in with his parents and takes care of his sick mother, and the two friends grow apart. Young begins to write short stories as a way to replace his nights of rambling with Jaehee, and, after winning a prize, he embarks on a career as a writer. As his star rises, he meets two men—one is handsome but cold, the other could be his true love—and has to choose. The strength of the narrator, notably his flexibility of voice and expansiveness, carries the narrative to great heights, making this a standout among queer literature. Brilliant, glowing, and fun, Hur's translation succeeds in bringing Park's effervescent voice to English-reading audiences.
