I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki: A Memoir
Baek Sehee
(Author)
Anton Hur
(Translator)
Description
National Indie Bestseller
World Literature Today Notable Translation of the Year
Salon Favorite Book of the Year
The South Korean runaway bestseller, an intimate therapy memoir translated by International Booker Prize shortlisted Anton Hur.
ME: I don't know, I'm - what's the word - depressed? Do I have to go into detail? Baek Sehee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her - what to call it? - depression? She feels persistently low, anxious, endlessly self-doubting, but also highly judgmental of others. She hides her feelings well at work and with friends, performing the calmness her lifestyle demands. The effort is exhausting, overwhelming, and keeps her from forming deep relationships. This can't be normal. But if she's so hopeless, why can she always summon a desire for her favorite street food: the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like? Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist over a twelve-week period, and expanding on each session with her own reflective micro-essays, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions, and harmful behaviors that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Part memoir, part self-help book, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki is a book to keep close and to reach for in times of darkness. It will appeal to anyone who has ever felt alone or unjustified in their everyday despair.
Product Details
Price
$24.00
$22.32
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing
Publish Date
November 01, 2022
Pages
208
Dimensions
5.82 X 8.5 X 0.81 inches | 0.77 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9781635579383
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
Born in 1990, Baek Sehee studied creative writing in college before working for five years at a publishing house. For ten years, she received psychiatric treatment for dysthymia (persistent mild depression), which became the subject of her essays, and then I Want to Die, but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki. Her favorite food is tteokbokki, and she lives with her rescue dog, Jaram.
Anton Hur was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He is the winner of a PEN Translates grant and a PEN/Heim Translation Fund grant, among many others, and his translations include Kyung-Sook Shin's Violets, Bora Chung's Cursed Bunny, and Sang Young Park's Love in the Big City.Reviews
"At once personal and universal, this book is about finding a path to awareness, understanding, and wisdom." --Kirkus Reviews
"Honest and authentic throughout . . . A sincere attempt at self-discovery that will resonate with young people who suffer from similar forms of depression and anxiety" --Library Journal "Candid . . . heartfelt . . . Sehee's mission to normalize conversation about mental illness is an admirable one." --Publishers Weekly "A testament to the gradual nature of therapy's cumulative healing effects, I Want to Die should resonate with anyone who eagerly transcribes every nugget of advice they get." --Buzzfeed "Earnest . . . clever . . . [Baek Sehee] uses months of (real) transcripts from her therapy sessions to explore her own depression and anxiety, always tiptoeing toward something like self-awareness." --Chicago Tribune "An eye-opening view into a person's most vulnerable moments in a new way." --Cosmopolitan "With candor and humor, Baek offers readers and herself resonant moments of empathy." --Booklist "For readers feeling a little icy around the edges, [Sehee's] memoir promises to defrost." --Wired.com "[I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki] is a therapeutic salve . . . Recommended by K-pop juggernaut BTS's RM, Sehee's memoir is a connective tissue for all of us looking for a silver lining." - PopSugar "Compelling . . . there is a fascination being inside the counseling room with [Sehee]. We feel we are a party to a sacred realm and find ourselves drawn to her testimony; mesmerized by her ability to keep thwarting herself from getting better. And we want her to get better." - Books & Film Globe "If you've ever felt exhausted and anxious by performing well-being, this is a book for you." - Ms. Magazine
