Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
I picked this book up randomly from Waterstones on my birthday as a part of my gift to myself. I have seen it on the internet frequently, but I have never gotten around to purchasing and reading it until recently. Before reading it, I did not know too much about it, except that it was a story about South Korean women in general and their position in the modern world. This was a short, but precise and relevant novel that exposed the issues of misogyny and sexism in an excellent mixture of fiction and non-fiction. In the novel, we follow the story of the titular character from the start of her education to her marriage, motherhood and her issues with mental health. Throughout the novel, the reader is exposed to many inequalities and injustices that women in South Korea still face simply because they are born women in this world. Author provides numerous examples of situations in which it was expected that women would continuously and constantly sacrifice themselves for men in thei...