A special copy (signed by both the author and translator) of Sang Young Park’s Love in the Big City, a beautiful novel about queer life in Seoul that (thankfully) refuses the usual misery-versus-liberation binary. 

Young explores the city through friendship, sex, family, illness, Catholic guilt, bad boyfriends and worse judgement with a voice that is fast, funny and kind of gorgeously unsentimental. The city is a playground full of bars, apartments, hospitals, dating apps and convenience stores, and for Young, their desire has to negotiate money, family expectation and social visibility.

Structured in four linked sections, the novel gradually shifts register as Young ages, its comedy accumulating melancholy without surrendering to it. The central relationship with his roommate Jaehee is particularly good: intimate, chaotic and neither romantic nor incidental, one of those friendships that reorganises an entire life. Originally published in Korean as Daedosiui sarangbeop in 2019, this English translation by Anton Hur was published by Tilted Axis Press in 2021 and longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.

Tilted Axis Press, London, 2021. First English-language edition. Paperback. Signed by both Sang Young Park and translator Anton Hur. Moderate rubbing and scratching to covers, with light edge and corner wear and a small crease to upper front corner. Internally clean and unmarked; binding firm. Very good condition.