Jeong You-jeong, one of Korea’s bestselling masters of crime and psychological suspense, will be in New York next week to mark the English-language release of her latest novel, "Perfect Happiness."
Translated by Sean Lin Halbert and arriving in US bookstores on Tuesday, Jeong’s psychological thriller probes the darkness lurking behind the facade of a seemingly perfect family.
At the center of the story is Yuna, a narcissistic mother whose relentless pursuit of happiness becomes a weapon against those closest to her: her husband, her estranged sister and her 6-year-old daughter, Jiyoo.
Everyone in Yuna’s life is desperate to keep her happy. And even when she is not blaming or hitting, the threat of her moods keeps the family from bonding, touching or even speaking long enough to realize she is playing them against one another.
But when Jiyoo’s feverish memories of loons hint at a troubling crime, Yuna’s estranged sister and guilt-ridden husband begin to reconstruct her movements, the unexplained tragedies in her past and the lies she has told for years.
Jeong has built a career with a string of bestsellers, including "Seven Years of Darkness" and "The Good Son," both available in English. "Seven Years of Darkness" was adapted into a film in 2018.
To celebrate the new release, Jeong will appear at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library on Wednesday and at The Twisted Spine, a New York bookstore dedicated to horror and dark fiction, on Thursday.
hwangdh@heraldcorp.com
