Praise for Love in the Big City:
Longlisted for the International Booker Prize
Longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award
A New York Times Book Review Paperback Row Selection
Named a Best LGBTQ+ Book of the Year by BuzzFeed
“Intoxicating . . . In Park’s hands, Young is loud and obnoxious, insufferable and magnetic, messy and wise. The prose, translated by Anton Hur, reads like an iPhone screen, vibrant and addictive. What a joy it is to see such a profound exploration of contemporary queer life — its traumas and its ecstasies throbbing in harmony. It’s a shimmering addition to the recent genre of novels chronicling queer millennial malaise . . . Dazzling.”—Bobby Finger, New York Times Book Review
“It’s a mark of the generous spirit of the South Korean author’s English-language debut that it made me laugh on the first page. The novel’s loosely autobiographical account of a young gay man losing and finding his way in a conservative society isn’t always so funny, but even bad news is delivered with a spark . . . The modulation of tone casts out any initial fear that the novel might just skate across the surface.”—Guardian
“An exuberant hunger drives the characters of Love in the Big City, people who are young, broke and eager to indulge in the many pleasures of Seoul, be they carnal or culinary . . . There’s a generosity and biting humor that imbues his stories, with glittering descriptions that render our food-and-drink-obsessed culture in liquid-crystal high definition . . . Hur, the book’s translator, manages to preserve that rhythm in English through a flawless, breezy millennial vernacular that veers artfully between slang like ‘dickmatized’ and poetic ruminations on ‘the taste of the universe’ within the span of a single chapter. The delicious, unbridled joy in Park’s depiction of queer Korean life is revolutionary and fun as hell to read.”—Hannah Bae, Eater
“Translated by Anton Hur with startling immediacy, Park’s English language debut—as framed by this unforgettable scene—captures the ambiguous landscape inhabited by South Korean gays, of being both visible and unacknowledged . . . While reading Love in the Big City, I would use Google Maps to follow Young and Gyu-ho’s meandering walks through Seoul—their favorite city—where the names of various neighborhoods take on the quality of hypnotic prayer . . . By invoking these specific locations, Park—who calls himself a ‘citizen-writer’—has poetically mapped out a normalizing zone for his gay protagonists so they can overcome the dichotomy between safety and exposure, public and private.”—Thúy Đinh, NPR
“A vibrant and emotional breath of fresh air that tackles queer relationships, living with HIV, and coming of age in Seoul across four sections that follow the narrator through different stages of early adulthood. It’s hard to think of a more beautiful and earnest reflection on identity, growth, and pain through a queer lens than this book.”—Queerty
“A novel, told through relationships, about navigating life as a young gay man in Korea . . . The novel skips freely around in time, lending it a sense of propulsion and instability that feels entirely intentional. It’s anchored, however, by the narrator’s irresistible voice, which alternates between earnest, heartfelt emotion, and likable wryness . . . This book will sweep readers up in its sheer longing. An addictive, profound novel.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Park’s stunning English-language debut takes readers through the wild highs and lows of young adulthood . . . The strength of the narrator, notably his flexibility of voice and expansiveness, caries the narrative to great heights, making this a standout among queer literature. Brilliant, glowing, and fun, Hur’s translation succeeds in bringing Park’s effervescent voice to English-reading audiences.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A lightly comical and insightful tale . . . Offers readers honest characterizations of flawed individuals from different walks of life who are all looking to find contentment regardless of their circumstances. Park’s writing is introspective and relatable, and the broad-ranging themes make this a good candidate for book group discussions.”—Library Journal
“A bestseller in Korea for being a significant (and rare!) gay novel, Park’s lost-love(s) narrative is also a universal literary beacon for readers of all backgrounds.”—Terry Hong, Booklist
“A surprise bestseller in Korea, Sang Young Park’s electric English-language debut perfectly captures the neon-lit potential of youthful nights.” —Michelle Hart, Oprah Daily
“Sang Young Park is my new favorite writer, as in his work we see life in modern Korea in what I think of as a fuller way, due to the inclusion of queer lives there. This novel is bawdy, hilarious, heartbreaking, fearless.” —Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
“Love in the Big City is a light-streaked and dazzling novel about all the messy riots of young life. This novel made me want to dance all night and fall in love. Sang Young Park writes honestly, tenderly, and with irresistible humor and charm. I miss his characters already.” —Brandon Taylor, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Real Life
“I am completely smitten with Young, the brutally honest protagonist of Sang Young Park’s exciting new novel, Love in the Big City. This is a book that reveals its depths slowly, carefully offering details which resonate throughout the entire work. I loved growing older with Young, and I was continually surprised by his capacity for love and disappointment. This is rich, brilliant territory that will move queer literature forward.” —Garrard Conley, New York Times-bestselling author of Boy Erased
“I love this book. I couldn’t stop talking about it with my friends while I was reading it. My friends are smart, queer, long suffering, badly loved even when they are in relationships, economically oppressed, urban, have straight best friends, get fat, are overly attached to their mothers, nursed their dying mother, have lots of sex, have no sex. Got a job and hated it, got more education, met someone in class, are obsessed with that person even though they are not interested in my friend at all. This writer, Sang Young Park, is one of my friends and everyone wants to read this book. We’re happy, we’re suffering, the condition is global.” —Eileen Myles, author of Afterglow
“A wickedly funny and unforgettable meditation on love and loss and the struggle to feel and ultimately find ourselves, Love in the Big City is a delicious exploration of both the bitchiness and banalities of surviving modern life. Park has crafted one of the most fervent and entertaining novels I’ve read in a long time. I couldn’t put this book down.” —Nancy Jooyoun Kim, author of The Last Story of Mina Lee
“Sang Young Park’s sharp, funny picaresque follows Young, our charming hero, through his rakish college days and into his still-insouciant thirties, as he drifts through boyfriends, jobs, friends, and most of all, through Seoul. Among the many pleasures of this wonderful novel are Young’s running commentaries about work, class, sex, queer domestic life, contemporary Korean family dynamics, and the literary world he finds himself in. I’m obsessed with this book.” —Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
“How could a story be as intense as this, as fresh as this? Page after page, we discover contradictory emotions that are both surprising and beautiful. I was so eager to read on that my fingers turned each new page before I’d finished the last. I hope he writes another novel that inspires such hard and fast intimacy.” —Kyung-Sook Shin, author of Please Look After Mom
“A leading author of Korean queer literature and the hottest name of the moment.” —The Hankyoreh
“I cried when I got to the end. As cliched as it sounds, reading this book made me feel that 'this summer night, this big city, because of you' I could believe in love again.” —Brunch.co.kr
“Love in the Big City is a compelling novel that deserves to be widely read. It expands our expectations and assumptions about what contemporary Korean literature is and can be.” —Yoo Jun, Professor of Korean Literature at Yonsei University
“As Young grows, yearns, and makes messy mistakes, readers will find themselves rooting for him all the way until the brilliant end.” —The Millions (“Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2021 Book Preview”)
★ 09/20/2021
Park’s stunning English-language debut takes readers through the wild highs and lows of young adulthood with the story of a gay man, his erstwhile female best friend, and his search for love. Young and Jaehee share a studio apartment in Seoul, where they work odd jobs, spend money they don’t have, compare notes on the men they’re dating (“His hair is so long he has it in two braids. He looks just like a doll. It’s hilarious when we have sex,” Jaehee says about one of them). They support each other after heartbreaks and nightmarish encounters, such as an intruder Jaehee lays out with a high kick. After Jaehee moves in with her safe but boring fiancé, marking the end of the pair’s “vagabond” years, Young moves back in with his parents and takes care of his sick mother, and the two friends grow apart. Young begins to write short stories as a way to replace his nights of rambling with Jaehee, and, after winning a prize, he embarks on a career as a writer. As his star rises, he meets two men—one is handsome but cold, the other could be his true love—and has to choose. The strength of the narrator, notably his flexibility of voice and expansiveness, carries the narrative to great heights, making this a standout among queer literature. Brilliant, glowing, and fun, Hur’s translation succeeds in bringing Park’s effervescent voice to English-reading audiences. (Nov.)
09/01/2021
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. VERDICT Centering on relationships (or the lack thereof), this work offers readers honest characterizations of flawed individuals from different walks of life who are all looking to find contentment regardless of their circumstances. Park's writing is introspective and relatable, and the broad-ranging themes make this a good candidate for book group discussions.—Shirley Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA
★ 2021-08-18
A novel, told through relationships, about navigating life as a young gay man in Korea.
In a series of long vignettes, the narrator, an unnamed man referred to occasionally as “Mr. Young” and “Mr. Park,” recounts his relationships: with other men; with his ailing, acidic, evangelical Christian mother; with his best friend. He meets Jaehee when she catches him kissing a man in a hotel parking lot. The two of them, both 20 years old and French majors in college, quickly become confidants, sleeping around with men and swapping stories about their escapades; eventually, they move in together. Now in his 30s, the narrator attends Jaehee’s wedding and feels a pang of loss. In another section, the narrator, now 25, is in the midst of an intense relationship with a man 12 years his senior while juggling caretaking duties for his mother, who is confined to the hospital with uterine cancer. Five years later, after a wounding and sudden breakup, the man gets back in touch with the narrator—raising the possibility that he might finally introduce his mother (whose cancer has returned) to his old flame. The bulk of the book, though, is dedicated to Gyu-ho, the bartender with whom he has a long-term relationship complicated by the narrator’s HIV-positive status. The novel skips freely around in time, lending it a sense of propulsion and instability that feels entirely intentional. It’s anchored, however, by the narrator’s irresistible voice, which alternates between earnest, heartfelt emotion and likable wryness: He names his virus Kylie, after Kylie Minogue, and sees, at a park, “a middle-aged couple so tightly arm in arm that one seemed to have placed the other under arrest.” The prose is dense with fine-grained characterization: Of one boyfriend, the narrator says, “Conversations with him at his house sometimes gave me the feeling that he was reciting lines from a Greek tragedy or an absurdist play, or even an eighties movie.” Despite an ending that drags just a bit, this book will sweep readers up in its sheer longing.
An addictive, profound novel.
