
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Kathleen Choe
About this listen
Vulture Best Books of the Year (So Far)
A New York Times Editors Choice Selection
A fierce international best seller that launched Korea’s new feminist movement, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 follows one woman’s psychic deterioration in the face of rigid misogyny.
Truly, flawlessly, completely, she became that person.
In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul lives Kim Jiyoung. A 30-something-year-old “millennial everywoman”, she has recently left her white-collar desk job - in order to care for her newborn daughter full-time - as so many Korean women are expected to do. But she quickly begins to exhibit strange symptoms that alarm her husband, parents, and in-laws: Jiyoung impersonates the voices of other women - alive and even dead, both known and unknown to her. As she plunges deeper into this psychosis, her discomfited husband sends her to a male psychiatrist.
In a chilling, eerily truncated third-person voice, Jiyoung’s entire life is recounted to the psychiatrist - a narrative infused with disparate elements of frustration, perseverance, and submission. Born in 1982 and given the most common name for Korean baby girls, Jiyoung quickly becomes the unfavored sister to her princeling little brother. Always, her behavior is policed by the male figures around her - from the elementary school teachers who enforce strict uniforms for girls, to the coworkers who install a hidden camera in the women’s restroom and post their photos online. In her father’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s fault that men harass her late at night; in her husband’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s duty to forsake her career to take care of him and their child - to put them first.
Jiyoung’s painfully common life is juxtaposed against a backdrop of an advancing Korea, as it abandons “family planning” birth control policies and passes new legislation against gender discrimination. But can her doctor flawlessly, completely cure her, or even discover what truly ails her?
Rendered in minimalist yet lacerating prose, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 sits at the center of our global #MeToo movement and announces the arrival of writer of international significance.
©2016 Cho Nam-joo (P)2020 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story
This is the story of the peculiar and magical photo studio owned by Mr. Hirasaka, a collector of antique cameras. In the dimly lit interior, a paper background is pulled down in front of a wall, and in front of it stands a single, luxurious chair with an armrest on one side. On a stand is a large bellows camera. On the left is the main studio; photos can also be taken in the courtyard. Beyond its straightforward interior, however, is a secret. The studio is, in fact, the door to the afterlife, the place between life and death where those who have departed have a chance—one last time.
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Quiet, magical feels...a bit like Harry
- By SHES4AMWF on 03-18-25
By: Sanaka Hiiragi
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Beasts of a Little Land
- A Novel
- By: Juhea Kim
- Narrated by: Sue Jean Kim, Raymond Lee
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1917, deep in the snowy mountains of occupied Korea, an impoverished local hunter on the brink of starvation saves a young Japanese officer from an attacking tiger. In an instant, their fates are connected — and from this encounter unfolds a saga that spans half a century.
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PDF support needed
- By Ann L on 01-06-22
By: Juhea Kim
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Bronze Drum
- By: Phong Nguyen
- Narrated by: Quyen Ngo
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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In 40 CE, in the Au Lac region of ancient Vietnam, two daughters of a Vietnamese Lord fill their days training, studying, and trying to stay true to Vietnamese traditions. While Trung Trac is disciplined and wise, always excelling in her duty, Trung Nhi is fierce and free spirited, more concerned with spending time in the gardens and with lovers. But these sister's lives—and the lives of their people—are shadowed by the oppressive rule of the Han Chinese. They are forced to adopt Confucian teachings, secure marriages, and pay ever‑increasing taxes.
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The lack of understanding of Vietnam's ancient history and culture is very unfortunate
- By Anonymous User on 04-13-24
By: Phong Nguyen
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Violets
- By: Kyung-Sook Shin, Anton Hur - translator
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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San is twenty-two and alone when she happens upon a job at a flower shop in Seoul's bustling city center. Haunted by childhood rejection, she stumbles through life—painfully vulnerable, stifled, and unsure. She barely registers to others, especially by the ruthless standards of '90s South Korea. Over the course of one hazy, volatile summer, San meets a curious cast of characters: the nonspeaking shop owner, a brash coworker, quiet farmers, and aggressive customers. Fueled by a quiet desperation to jump-start her life, she plunges headfirst into obsession with a magazine photographer.
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You will cry it’s so dull
- By Rockinpickles8 on 09-05-23
By: Kyung-Sook Shin, and others
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Free Food for Millionaires
- By: Min Jin Lee
- Narrated by: Jennifer Sun Bell
- Length: 25 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet Casey Han: a strong-willed, Queens-bred daughter of Korean immigrants immersed in a glamorous Manhattan lifestyle she can't afford. Casey is eager to make it on her own, away from the judgements of her parents' tight-knit community, but she soon finds that her Princeton economics degree isn't enough to rid her of ever-growing credit-card debt and a toxic boyfriend. When a chance encounter with an old friend lands her a new opportunity, she's determined to carve a space for herself in a glittering world of privilege, power, and wealth—but at what cost?
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Worst narration ever
- By Mary on 05-25-20
By: Min Jin Lee
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Nowhere Girl
- A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood
- By: Cheryl Diamond
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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By the time she was in her teens, Diamond had lived dozens of lives and lies, but as she grew older, love and trust turned to fear and violence, and her family—the only people she had in the world—began to unravel. She started to realize that her life itself might be a big con, and the people she loved, the most dangerous of all. With no way out and her identity burned so often that she had no proof she even existed, all that was left was a girl from nowhere.
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As Diamond said in an interview, “It is a horrific story at times, but also absolutely magical.”
- By Teela Klekotka on 02-11-23
By: Cheryl Diamond
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Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop
- By: Hwang Bo-reum, Shanna Tan - translator
- Narrated by: Rosa Escoda
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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Yeongju is burned out. With her high-flying career, demanding marriage, and busy life in Seoul, she knows she should feel successful, but all she feels is drained. Yet an abandoned dream nags at her, and in a leap of faith, she leaves her old life behind. Quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeongju moves to a small residential neighborhood outside the city, where she opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.
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Really resonated
- By Aebell on 04-18-24
By: Hwang Bo-reum, and others
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The Mermaid from Jeju
- By: Sumi Hahn
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay, Raymond J. Lee
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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In the aftermath of World War II, Goh Junja is a girl just coming into her own. She is the latest successful deep-sea diver in her family. She urges her mother to allow her to make their annual trip to Mt. Halla, where they trade sea delicacies for pork. A sea-village girl, Junja has never been to the mountains, where it smells like mushrooms and earth, and it is there she falls in love with mountain-boy Yang Suwol. But when Junja returns one day later, it is just in time to see her mother take her last breath, beaten by the waves during a dive she was taking in Junja's place.
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Male reader ruins the book
- By Shana Theobald on 06-01-23
By: Sumi Hahn
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Concerning My Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Kim Hye-jin, Jamie Chang - translator
- Narrated by: Michelle H. Lee
- Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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When a widowed, aging mother allows Green, her thirty-something daughter, to move into her apartment, all she wants for her is a stable and quiet existence like her own. Ideally, a steady income and a good husband. But when Green turns up with her long-term girlfriend in tow, her mother is enraged and unwilling to welcome their relationship into her home. Her daughter's definition of family is not one she can accept. Green's involvement in a campus protest against unfair dismissals of gay colleagues throws her into deeper shambles.
By: Kim Hye-jin, and others
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I'll Be Right There
- A Novel
- By: Kyung-Sook Shin, Sora Kim-Russell - translator
- Narrated by: Erin Moon
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in 1980s South Korea amid the tremors of political revolution, I'll Be Right There follows Jung Yoon, a highly literate, twenty-something woman, as she recounts her tragic personal history as well as those of her three intimate college friends. When Yoon receives a distressing phone call from her ex-boyfriend after eight years of separation, memories of a tumultuous youth begin to resurface, forcing her to re-live the most intense period of her life.
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Exceptional
- By jonie v. on 02-08-15
By: Kyung-Sook Shin, and others
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The Book of M
- A Novel
- By: Peng Shepherd
- Narrated by: James Fouhey, Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 17 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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One afternoon at an outdoor market in India, a man’s shadow disappears - an occurrence science cannot explain. He is only the first. The phenomenon spreads like a plague, and while those afflicted gain a strange new power, it comes at a horrible price: the loss of all their memories. Ory and his wife, Max, have escaped the Forgetting so far by hiding in an abandoned hotel deep in the woods. Their new life feels almost normal, until one day, Max’s shadow disappears, too.
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It was ok
- By Fatima on 12-04-19
By: Peng Shepherd
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Cold Enough for Snow
- By: Jessica Au
- Narrated by: Angela Lin
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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A mother and daughter travel from abroad to meet in Tokyo. They walk along the canals through the autumn evenings, escape the typhoon rains, share meals in small cafes and restaurants, and visit galleries to see some of the city’s most radical modern art. All the while, they talk: about the weather, horoscopes, clothes, and objects, about family, distance, and memory. But uncertainties abound. Who is really speaking here - is it only the daughter? And what is the real reason behind this elliptical, perhaps even spectral journey?
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Great audio!!
- By David on 12-18-22
By: Jessica Au
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Moonrise over New Jessup
- By: Jamila Minnicks
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s 1957, and after leaving the only home she has ever known, Alice Young steps off the bus into the all-Black town of New Jessup, Alabama, where residents have largely rejected integration as the means for Black social advancement. Instead, they seek to maintain, and fortify, the community they cherish on their “side of the woods.” In this place, Alice falls in love with Raymond Campbell, whose clandestine organizing activities challenge New Jessup’s longstanding status quo and could lead to the young couple’s expulsion—or worse—from the home they both hold dear.
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Wonderful!
- By Blee on 03-21-23
By: Jamila Minnicks
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Kim Ji-young, nacida en 1982 [ Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982]
- By: Cho Nam-joo
- Narrated by: Elsa Veiga
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
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Esta novela ha pasado de ser la breve historia de una joven coreana a convertirse en un terremoto que ha sacudido a las mujeres de medio mundo. Kim Ji-young (que lleva el nombre más común entre las mujeres coreanas nacidas en 1982) es aparentemente una mujer como cualquier otra, con una juventud sin pena ni gloria, siempre a la sombra. Todo se retuerce cuando, de repente, Kim empieza a hablar con las voces de su madre, de una amiga desaparecida, de otras muchas mujeres.
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Me encanto.
- By Anonymous User on 01-19-21
By: Cho Nam-joo
What listeners say about Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
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- TuErasTu
- 03-27-23
Powerful story and narrator
I loved the narrator’s detached style of reading. It works and is additive for this story. This is probably one of my new favorite books. Subtle and very thought-provoking.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-29-23
it’s all so unfortunate
it’s disappointing to consider how many lost goals, hopes, sacrifices made, unrealized and unfulfilled lives women have had because of the way they were born. their lot in life is decided for them before they even take their first breath. from kim jiyoung, her mother, my mother, my grandmother and likely yours too it’s truly an unfortunate thing to realize.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Becky
- 02-07-23
Mind Blown & Eye Opening!
Mind Blown and Eye Opening. I binge-read this and I'm speechless! Read this for a new perspective.
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- Amber
- 11-15-24
the pov is amazing
Honestly, it's straightforward to listen to, and it's scary the similarities that will happen in the US with many rights being stripped.
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- Misty D. Jackman
- 05-24-24
Relatable
While the story is a snapshol of the lives of Korean women, it's relatable for women in many western worlds, as well, especially those who were raised with strong expectations for the woman to marry younger and have children and do most-if not all-of the unpaid labor at home.
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- Sylvia
- 05-10-21
Great
I coul listen for hours and hours. Really good boook. It gives a different experience than the movie. it's deep and I felt that I understood things better. tthe readdiing is perfect and clear.
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- Anna Christine
- 07-25-22
Informative
this story was eye opening yet relatable. It should be required reading in my opinion.
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- steph
- 03-05-23
Eye Opener
This story could be written about millions of women. It stirs up emotions in a matter-of-fact narration, and shows us how society accepts what is easy instead of committing to accepting what is right and making a change.
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- Patrick Zircher
- 06-20-24
The feminist, capitalist blues
Perfunctory and matter-of-fact in style, this is a look at growing up a woman in South Korea, where the work environment for women is rated the worst in developed nations & the wage gap between the sexes the largest.
Eye-opening for its similarities to the U.S.
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- Philip
- 06-12-24
Interesting
Interesting but not the most entertaining, I would have liked more of a connected story.
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