Two Women Living Together
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
'Two Women Living Together is a wonderfully calming and cosy read. I always adore stories of women who choose to live beyond the confines of cultural expectation—and this book might just be my new favourite!' - Emma Gannon, Sunday Times bestselling author of both fiction and non-fiction, and a former judge for the 2025 Women's Prize.
‘Everything about this compelling, curious, beautiful story of two women moving in together, in midlife, is delightful ... I loved every moment!' - Clover Stroud, author of My Wild & Sleepless Nights, The Red of my Blood, and The Giant on the Skyline
Quietly radical, full of warmth and wit, Two Women Living Together celebrates carving out your own path, cats, female friendship, and found family.
At some point between living alone and becoming single, Hwang Sunwoo and Kim Hana found each other, and decided to live together in a nice apartment where their four cats would finally have the freedom to run around. Together they redefined what family looks and feels like.
At a time housing costs have skyrocketed whilst the birth rates plummets, these two independent Korean women in their late forties share their views on society and its expectations of them. And, intent neither to marry or to live alone, they reflect on the comfort of their cohabiting friendship as it blossoms into a life full of joy and meaning.
'Inspiring' - Evening Standard
'Beneath the warmth lies a radical proposition: that their partnership should be treated like any family.' - Guardian
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Two Women Talk podcasters Kim and Hwang debut with a heartwarming memoir about their unorthodox platonic cohabitation in South Korea. Uninterested in marriage but feeling they'd outgrown living alone, the pair opted to elevate their online friendship and move in together in 2016, when both were in their 40s. In alternating chapters, they recall enduring the pandemic together and mastering the division of household chores, from cooking and cleaning to podcast production. Alongside their descriptions of domestic life, they detail caring for their four cats, who provide the narrative with gentle comic relief (Goro "may be the only boy in the household, but he's got the girliest meow," while Youngbae "demands to be pampered" and always "looks like she's quietly scheming"). Though much of Kim and Hwang's arrangement sounds idyllic, they're blunt about navigating their divergent perspectives on debt and cleanliness, and how "the way we fought led to even more fights." They've always reconciled, however; as Hwang explains, "It is precisely because, as we grow older, we see more of the world's ugliness and meet more cynics and pessimists that we're intent on staying positive." This is a winning testament to the power of friendship.
