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Scribner has landed Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by South Korean novelist Cho Nam-Joo following a four-way bidding war.
Senior commissioning editor Chris White acquired UK and Commonwealth rights with audio from Georgina Capel at Georgina Capel Associates in a four-publisher auction for an undisclosed sum.
The Simon & Schuster UK imprint will publish the South Korean-based scriptwriter's novel as a trade paperback in February 2020. It said it is planning "a major PR and marketing campaign" ahead of publication.
The novel follows Kim Jiyoung, a woman born in South Korea towards the end of the last millennium, who has started acting strangely. “More than mere mimicry, she has begun to inhabit the characters of other women she has known," the synopis reads. "At a party with her in-laws, she sifts seamlessly into the role of her mother; during a moment of intimacy with her husband, she begins talking in the manner of a dead friend. Alarmed by his wife’s behaviour, her husband, Daehyun, sends Jiyoung to see a psychiatrist. At first the psychiatrist suspects ‘maternity blues’ to be the most likely cause but, as we read his report, we begin to learn that there are much more powerful forces at work that have driven Kim Jiyoung to this strange state of psychosis.”
Described by the S&S UK imprint as "a sensation in its native South Korea where it has sold over one million copies," the book was also described as “a driving force behind the #MeToo movement and the championing of women’s rights”. The publisher said it “has proved highly controversial among sections of South Korean society where it has been on the receiving end of a backlash by ‘men’s rights’ campaigners who have heaped abuse on its celebrity fans”. Noh Hoe-chang, a member of the National Assembly, apparently gifted this book to President of South Korea Moon Jae-in.
It has reached the top of the bestseller lists in Japan and Taiwan and translation rights have now been sold in 18 countries. A film starring the two of South Korea's biggest stars, Gong Yoo and Jung Yu-mi, is due for release at the beginning of 2020.
Commenting on the acquisition, White said: “This is an exceptionally important book and Scribner is honoured to have been chosen to be its UK publisher. It’s an enormous privilege and a big responsibility to be tasked with bringing a novel that has had such a profound and positive effect beyond the borders of literature to a UK audience. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is a South Korean sensation that is changing the world one country at a time. In so many ways, it is as relevant to contemporary Britain as it is to South Korea. It demands to be read by anybody who has an interest in gender equality but more especially it should be read by everybody who doesn’t.”