This novel sparked an incredible response upon its initial publication in South Korea where it has sold more than a million copies. The English language version of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 (from translator Jamie Chang) also comes to Australian readers with a fascinating backstory. This effect is achieved in part by the inclusion of elements of autobiography and documentary into the work. Author Cho Nam-joo has said she wished to show what ordinary life looked like for women in South Korea by emphasising common experiences instead of depicting extreme circumstances. It’s immediately apparent when reading this work that Jiyoung has been constructed as a kind of ‘millennial everywoman’. But there is something unnerving about the event’s dispassionate narration, and as the incidents pile up over the years, a feeling of claustrophobia intensifies, building to a bleakly ironic conclusion. There is nothing extraordinary about what happens to Jiyoung in this novel: a laughing remark by a doctor in response to a birth injury a lecture from her father for her ‘short skirt’ after a young man hassles her on the way home from school being passed over for a promotion at work in favour of a male colleague. Throughout, she comes up against persistent sexism. What follows is a succinct account of Jiyoung’s life, from birth to elementary school, from the office to her days at home caring for a small baby.

When Kim Jiyoung starts exhibiting bizarre behaviours, her husband takes her to a psychiatrist.

Kim jiyoung born 1982 cover