If I Had Your Face
'Assured, bold, and electrifying' Taylor Jenkins Reid, bestselling author of MALIBU RISING
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4.1 • 44 Ratings
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
'Gripping' Curtis Sittenfeld * 'Electrifying' Taylor Jenkins Reid * 'Remarkable' Kevin Kwan * 'Stunning' Sunday Times * 'Brilliant' Pandora Sykes
In South Korea, where impossible beauty standards and ruthless social hierarchies dictate your every move, four women are balancing on a razor's edge:
Kyuri, a beautiful 'room salon' girl paid to entertain wealthy businessmen after hours.
Miho, an artist whose life becomes enmeshed with the offspring of the super-wealthy elite.
Ara, a hairstylist whose obsession with a K-pop star leads her to violent extremes.
Wonna, their neighbour, pregnant with a child that she can't afford.
Set in the drinking dens and beauty salons of Seoul, If I Had Your Face is an electrifying debut novel about female strength, resilience and the solace that friendship can provide.
'Cha's writing always crackles . . . Touching, compelling and icily cool' Observer
'Fascinating, eye-opening, compelling - like the film Parasite, If I Had Your Face is also an exposé of the class system in South Korea' Independent
'Absolutely stunning. . . Assured, bold, and electrifying' Taylor Jenkins Reid, Sunday Times bestselling author of DAISY JONES & THE SIX and MALIBU RISING
'One of the buzziest debuts of the year, If I Had Your Face transports readers to glittering, futuristic Seoul... Essential reading' Vogue
'Culturally fascinating, emotionally layered, gripping and smart' Curtis Sittenfeld, bestselling author of PREP and AMERICAN WIFE
'Glittering, engrossing' Helen Oyeyemi, author of GINGERBREAD
'Remarkable, brilliantly crafted and devastatingly exquisite' Kevin Kwan, bestselling author of CRAZY RICH ASIANS
'I finished it in two sittings, have re-read it twice since and I'd still happily read it again - it's a serious contender for one of my favourite books ever.' Red
LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2021
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In her striking and, at times, unsettling debut novel, If I Had Your Face, Frances Cha transports us to South Korea—to a ruthless, uber-competitive, male-dominated world where beauty standards are impossibly high and plastic surgery is shockingly commonplace. In her taut, sparse prose, Cha introduces us to five interconnected women who live in the same building. There’s Ara, a mute, boyband-obsessed hair stylist; Kyuri, who works in a ‘room salon’ (the controversial South Korean bars where rich businessmen pick young, often surgically-enhanced women to spend an evening with); Sujin, Ara’s childhood friend from home who undergoes jaw surgery as this novel begins; and artist Miho, Kyuri’s flatmate who grew up in an orphanage and hangs out with members of South Korea’s most elite families. Finally, there’s Wonna, a pregnant newlywed struggling to work out how she can afford to raise a baby. The stories they tell offer a powerfully eye-opening account of being a young woman in South Korea today. They are, we quickly learn, in survival mode—attempting to make it in a patriarchal society that values them for how they look and how much they earn. Sparkling, original and sharp—and with heartwarming depictions of female friendship as an essential support system—If I Had Your Face asks us to dig much deeper than that.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cha shines a light on the lives of four young women living in the same Seoul, South Korea, apartment building in her winning debut. In alternating chapters, each woman narrates her difficulties and offers insight on the others. Ara, a hair stylist who lost the ability to speak after a violent attack, is obsessed with a pop star. Kyuri, who undergoes plastic surgery to make her face resemble a member of a popular girl band, holds a coveted job in a "room salon" pouring drinks for men, and has become dangerously enamored of one of her wealthy clients. Miho, Kyuri's roommate, an up-and-coming artist, strives to balance devotion to her work with a relationship to her unfaithful, ultra-rich boyfriend. Wonna, who was physically abused by the grandmother who raised her, is desperate to keep her pregnancy despite her husband's uncertain finances. Cha navigates the obstacles of her characters' lives with ease and heartbreaking realism, showing the lengths these women are willing to go to pursue their dreams in a country where they are told they "do not live for tomorrow." This is an insightful, powerful story from a promising new voice.
Customer Reviews
Amazing
One of the best books I read this year and will stay with me for a long while.
Wow
I’m deeply sad but I loved it