Author(s) | Cho Nam-Joo

Publisher | Scribner, imprint of Simon & Schuster (UK), 2021

Language(s) | English

Hardcover | 163 pages

ISBN | 978-1471184307

Photography | Creatives duMonde

“The world had changed a great deal, but the little rules, contracts and customs had not, which meant the world hadn’t actually changed at all.”

Some scenes translate without explication. If you’ve been involved in (directly or indirectly) or witnessed certain scenarios, without words, you recognize them because lived experience is information enough.

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is a specific story about one woman in South Korea. Through her, the author, Cho Nam-Joo, draws a through line to women globally, across generations in a way that no women’s movement has been able to achieve. Neither history nor cultural context are barriers to readers’ ability to connect. This is Cho’s triumph, in 163 pages.

It its sparing yet rich use of language, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is as notable for its textbook explicitness as for what it implies. It is a story for and about (marginalized) girls who become (sacrificial) women which is inevitably, and equally, a story for and about (nurtured) boys who become (beneficiary) men.

Oeuvre | Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is Cho Nam-Joo’s third novel and collaboration with translator Jamie Chang, who’s ability to mine the original Korean text is a gift to readers in this English version. The novel has been translated into ten languages. Korean first edition | 82년생 김지영| hardcover | published by Minumsa (2016) | ISBN 9789864892655.

TMG