If I Had Your Face
A Novel
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3.9 • 241 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A riveting debut novel set in contemporary Seoul, Korea, about four young women making their way in a world defined by impossible standards of beauty, after-hours room salons catering to wealthy men, ruthless social hierarchies, and K-pop mania
“Powerful and provocative . . . a novel about female strength, spirit, resilience—and the solace that friendship can sometimes provide.”—The Washington Post
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, NPR, Esquire, Bustle, BBC, New York Post, InStyle
Kyuri is an achingly beautiful woman with a hard-won job at a Seoul “room salon,” an exclusive underground bar where she entertains businessmen while they drink. Though she prides herself on her cold, clear-eyed approach to life, an impulsive mistake threatens her livelihood.
Kyuri’s roommate, Miho, is a talented artist who grew up in an orphanage but won a scholarship to study art in New York. Returning to Korea after college, she finds herself in a precarious relationship with the heir to one of the country’s biggest conglomerates.
Down the hall in their building lives Ara, a hairstylist whose two preoccupations sustain her: an obsession with a boy-band pop star, and a best friend who is saving up for the extreme plastic surgery that she hopes will change her life.
And Wonna, one floor below, is a newlywed trying to have a baby that she and her husband have no idea how they can afford to raise in Korea’s brutal economy.
Together, their stories tell a gripping tale at once unfamiliar and unmistakably universal, in which their tentative friendships may turn out to be the thing that ultimately saves them.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The women in Frances Cha’s thought-provoking debut novel are used to feeling the weight of South Korea’s impossibly high beauty standards—but that doesn’t make their experiences any easier. There’s Ara, a nonverbal stylist; Miho, an artist just returned from New York; Kyuri, a room salon girl who’s paid a high price to look perfect; and Sujin, a young woman who’s saving up for plastic surgery and hoping for a job like Kyuri’s. All four of Cha’s characters are heartbreakingly relatable, even though the detailed descriptions of South Korea’s omnipresent beauty industry are extremely specific. If I Had Your Face is not as heavy as it sounds, in large part because Cha writes with a refreshingly light touch that reminded us of Sex and the City’s Candace Bushnell. That sparkle keeps hope alive, making us think that these women might just find a way off that endless treadmill of perfection.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cha shines a light on the lives of four young women living in the same Seoul, South Korea, apartment building in her winning debut. In alternating chapters, each woman narrates her difficulties and offers insight on the others. Ara, a hair stylist who lost the ability to speak after a violent attack, is obsessed with a pop star. Kyuri, who undergoes plastic surgery to make her face resemble a member of a popular girl band, holds a coveted job in a "room salon" pouring drinks for men, and has become dangerously enamored of one of her wealthy clients. Miho, Kyuri's roommate, an up-and-coming artist, strives to balance devotion to her work with a relationship to her unfaithful, ultra-rich boyfriend. Wonna, who was physically abused by the grandmother who raised her, is desperate to keep her pregnancy despite her husband's uncertain finances. Cha navigates the obstacles of her characters' lives with ease and heartbreaking realism, showing the lengths these women are willing to go to pursue their dreams in a country where they are told they "do not live for tomorrow." This is an insightful, powerful story from a promising new voice.
Customer Reviews
No ending
This book had no ending. The characters showed no evolution and their back stories were left incomplete. Good try though. The writing was fluid and the perspective into the Korean culture and these women’s lives in particular was eye opening.