This time we will read the Korean "runaway bestseller" Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo.

About Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 (publisher's description):

Kim Jiyoung is the most common name for Korean women born in the 1980s.
Kim Jiyoung is representative of her generation:

At home, she is an unfavoured sister to her princeling little brother.
In primary school, she is a girl who has to line up behind the boys at lunchtime.
In high school, she is a daughter whose father blames her for being harassed late at night.
In university, she is a good student who doesn’t get put forward for internships by her professor.
In the office, she is an exemplary employee who is overlooked for promotion by her manager.
At home, she is a wife who has given up her career to take care of her husband and her baby.
Kim Jiyoung is depressed.
Kim Jiyoung has started to act out.
Kim Jiyoung is her own woman.
Kim Jiyoung is insane.

Kim Jiyoung’s husband sends her to see a psychiatrist.
This is his clinical assessment of the everywoman in contemporary Korea.

Reviews: The New York Times, The Guardian, Asian Review of Books

This event is for Asia Society Members only. How to become a member?

Attendance is free. We appreciate if you let us know that you'll be attending in the Book Salon WhatsApp group chat or via mail to [email protected].

About Asia Society Book Salon

In the Asia Society Switzerland Book Salon, we read and discuss fiction from or about Asia in an informal setting. We meet four times a year – in person in Zurich, if possible. For more information about upcoming meetings and books to read, please join the WhatsApp group or contact us at [email protected].