Cho Nam-Joo

FROM THE AUTHOR OF KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982 'There is laughter and joy to be found in these pages, along with the kind of laughter that sets two women over 50 rolling in the snow with tears streaming down their frozen cheeks and the aurora borealis dancing above them.' The Observer 'A thought-provoking, nuanced read' Sarah Manning, Red 'Dazzling prose' Elle Eight women. Eight stories. One reality.

A woman is born. A woman is filmed in public without consent. A woman suffers domestic violence.

A woman is gaslit. A woman is discriminated against at work. A woman grows old.

A woman becomes famous. A woman is hated, and loved, and then hated again. Written in Cho Nam-Joo's masterful, razor-sharp prose, Miss Kim Knows brings together the lives of eight Korean women, aged 10 to 80.

Contained in each of these biographies is a microcosm of contemporary Korea, and the challenges and injustices that women face from childhood to old age. As with Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, the fates of these eight women are the fates of women the world over. And under Cho Nam-Joo's precise, unveiled gaze, nothing and nobody escapes scrutiny--not even herself.

From the author of international bestseller Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

''Cho's complex, humane, and by its end utterly transfixing novel shows that it is in community that we find resilience.' i newspaper

'Like Bong Joon-ho's Academy Award-winning film Parasite and the popular Netflix series Squid Games, Saha points to the increasing inequality and lack of social mobility in South Korea. ... With global inequality on the rise, Saha's theme of human dignity quashed by the interests of mega-corporations resonates widely.' Daily Telegraph

'[A]n affecting portrait of people doing their best to survive in a world that would rather pretend they didn't exist.' New York Times

In a country called 'Town', Su is found dead in an abandoned car. The suspected killer is presumed to come from the Saha Estates.

Town is a privatised country, controlled by a secretive organisation known as the Seven Premiers. It is a society clearly divided into the haves and have-nots and those who have the very least live on the Saha Estates. Among their number is Jin-Kyung, a young woman whose brother, Dok-yung, was in a relationship with Su and quickly becomes the police's prime suspect. When Dok-yung disappears, Jin Ky-ung is determined to get to the bottom of things. On her quest to find the truth, though, she will uncover a reality far darker and crimes far greater than she could ever have imagined.

At once a dystopian mystery and devastating critique of how we live now, Saha lifts the lid on corruption, exploitation and government oppression, while, with deep humanity and compassion, showing us the lives of those who, through no fault of their own, suffer at the hand of brutal forces far beyond their control.

Praise for Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982