I devoured this novel in a single sitting.' -Janice Y.

The tale told here is as engrossing as a war chant, or a mosaic formed with blades, every piece a memento sharpened on those unyielding barriers between us and our ideal lives.' -Helen Oyeyemi, author of Gingerbread 'Make way for Frances Cha, an entrancing new voice who guides us into the complexities and contradictions of modern-day Seoul, a dissonant, neon world that is ripped open to bare the same universal and human challenges that face us all. 'Each voice in this quartet cuts through the pages so cleanly and clearly that the overall effect is one of dangerously glittering harmony. Together, their stories tell a gripping tale at once unfamiliar and unmistakably universal, in which their tentative friendships may turn out to be the thing that ultimately saves them. And Wonna, one floor below, is a newlywed trying to have a baby that she and her husband have no idea how they can afford to raise in Korea's brutal economy. Down the hall in their building lives Ara, a hairstylist whose two preoccupations sustain her: an obsession with a boy-band pop star, and a best friend who is saving up for the extreme plastic surgery that she hopes will change her life. Returning to Korea after college, she finds herself in a precarious relationship with the heir to one of the country's biggest conglomerates. Kyuri's roommate, Miho, is a talented artist who grew up in an orphanage but won a scholarship to study art in New York.

Though she prides herself on her cold, clear-eyed approach to life, an impulsive mistake threatens her livelihood. a novel about female strength, spirit, resilience-and the solace that friendship can sometimes provide.'- The Washington Post NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time * NPR * Esquire * Bustle * BBC * New York Post * InStyle Kyuri is an achingly beautiful woman with a hard-won job at a Seoul 'room salon,' an exclusive underground bar where she entertains businessmen while they drink.

A riveting debut novel set in contemporary Seoul, Korea, about four young women making their way in a world defined by impossible standards of beauty, after-hours room salons catering to wealthy men, ruthless social hierarchies, and K-pop mania 'Powerful and provocative.

Frances cha books