Love in the Big City

DEBUT A best seller in South Korea in 2019, Park’s first novel (following a short story collection) features an aspiring writer in his 20s with the author’s name and follows his quest for love as a gay man. The novel’s early pages detail Young’s friendship with his best friend and roommate Jaehee, a barista by day and tutor by night. The two share a passion for life and exchange unabashed tales of their numerous sexual conquests, but events take a turn when Jaehee settles down to marry her fiancé and Young must seek out a life of his own. What results is a lightly comical and insightful tale of a man, now in his 30s, who cares for his highly religious, strong-willed, but frail mother as she battles cancer; Young meanwhile seeks to better understand himself and to trust others enough to find happiness in life.