{"product_id":"ill-be-right-there-isbn-9781590516737","title":"I'll Be Right There","description":"\u003cb\u003e“A love story between friends. It is so well written. [Kyung-sook Shin] has this use of language that is just beautiful and poetic. It’s a great book if you’re looking to escape.” —Chelsea Handler, #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow friendship, European literature, and a charismatic professor defy war, oppression, and the absurd\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Set in 1980s South Korea amid the tremors of political revolution, \u003ci\u003eI’ll Be Right There\u003c\/i\u003e 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. With profound intellectual and emotional insight, she revisits the death of her beloved mother, the strong bond with her now-dying former college professor, the excitement of her first love, and the friendships forged out of a shared sense of isolation and grief.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Yoon’s formative experiences, which highlight both the fragility and force of personal connection in an era of absolute uncertainty, become immediately palpable. Shin makes the foreign and esoteric utterly familiar: her use of European literature as an interpreter of emotion and experience bridges any gaps between East and West. Love, friendship, and solitude are the same everywhere, as this book makes poignantly clear.“[\u003ci\u003eI\u003ci\u003e’\u003c\/i\u003ell Be Right There\u003c\/i\u003e is] a page-turner, such is Shin\u003ci\u003e’\u003c\/i\u003es gift for storytelling, as well as her careful cultivation of motifs.” —\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Shin writes wonderfully about intimacy and the longing of lonely people...\u003ci\u003eI’ll Be Right There\u003c\/i\u003e is a hopeful work about the power of art, friendship, and empathy to provide meaning to people\u003ci\u003e’\u003c\/i\u003es lives.” —\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Tender and mournful, the latest novel from best-selling South Korean novelist Shin (\u003ci\u003ePlease Look after Mom\u003c\/i\u003e, 2011) considers young love and loss in an era of political ferment...Shin\u003ci\u003e’\u003c\/i\u003es uncomplicated yet allusive narrative voice delivers another calmly affecting story, simultaneously foreign and familiar.” —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Shin can suggest profound implications in restrained detail, and though the story ends in tragedy, her frequent references to both Eastern and Western literature testify to the duty to hope and stay alive.” —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[\u003ci\u003eI\u003ci\u003e’\u003c\/i\u003ell Be Right There\u003c\/i\u003e] is full of beautiful and tragic moments between friends, a tender, complex exploration of shared stories, and, perhaps more important, the weight of a collective history on individual relationships.” —\u003ci\u003eSF Gate\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eI\u003ci\u003e’\u003c\/i\u003ell Be Right There\u003c\/i\u003e is as much about tender friendships as it is about the tragedies of a political uprising.” —\u003ci\u003eHuffington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Through one tender scene after another, Shin shows us the comfort human connection offers.”\u003ci\u003e —Bookslut\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Quivering, hopeful, and heartfelt.” —\u003ci\u003eBustle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In this inspiring novel, Kyung-sook Shin argues that, faced with treachery, the moral person can be carrier and Christ to others.” —\u003ci\u003eMinneapolis Star Tribune\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“\u003ci\u003eI’ll Be Right There\u003c\/i\u003e is a haunting story of adolescent entanglements that will speak to readers everywhere.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The shimmering, lucid tones and silver melancholy of\u003ci\u003e I\u003ci\u003e’\u003c\/i\u003ell Be Right There\u003c\/i\u003e give readers a South Korea peopled with citizens fighting for honor and intellectual freedom, and longing for love and solace. Kyung-Sook Shin’s characters have unforgettable voices—it’s no wonder she has so many fans.” —Susan Straight, author of\u003ci\u003e Between Heaven and Here \u003c\/i\u003eand National Book Award Finalist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The novel brilliantly uses European literature to familiarize Western readers with Eastern turmoil.” —\u003ci\u003eFlavorwire\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Shin\u003ci\u003e’\u003c\/i\u003es skill lies in her ability to transmute the specific into the universal.” —\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A wonderful, heartbreaking story that lingered with me long after the last page was turned. As the powerful story unfolded, I enjoyed peeling away the complicated, dark layers of every character. Kyung-sook Shin’s beautiful depictions of love and sweet adolescent confessions will take you back in time to your first heartbreak.” —\u003ci\u003ePP Wong, Editor-in-Chief, Banana Writers\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Known for her beautiful imagery and lyrical prose...in\u003ci\u003e I’ll Be Right There\u003c\/i\u003e, Shin utilizes vivid, searing imagery...balanc[ing] the gentle beauty of language with bold images throughout her writing...Shin’s passages are carefully crafted, as if they were from a book of poetry...Ultimately, \u003ci\u003eI’ll Be Right There\u003c\/i\u003e is a story of hope.” —\u003ci\u003eKorean Quarterly\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An astounding meditation on living in time, both time lost and time gained, as well as...an expression of a philosophy of a way to live..\u003ci\u003e.I'll Be Right There\u003c\/i\u003e immediately stands out as a book that supports, perhaps even needs, multiple readings.” —\u003ci\u003eKorean Literature in Translation\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Shin’s perspective on relationships is nuanced; she doesn't shy away from what is complex, complicated, or painful in everyday human connections...There is also vibrancy and richness in the lives of her characters, and an understanding of love and solitude that is universal.” —\u003ci\u003eElectric Literature\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Spectacular...Shin’s searing, immediate prose will remind readers of Nadeem Aslam’s \u003ci\u003eThe Blind Man’s Garden\u003c\/i\u003e, Edwidge Danticat’s\u003ci\u003e The Dew Breaker\u003c\/i\u003e, and Aminatta Forna’s \u003ci\u003eThe Memory of Love\u003c\/i\u003e, and their stories of ordinary lives trapped in extraordinary sociopolitical circumstances.” —\u003ci\u003eBookDragon \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A searing, literate portrayal of the cost of survival in a time of chaos, Shin nevertheless evokes a surprising amount of hope.”  \u003ci\u003e—Philadelphia Weekly\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Shin suggests that literature’s most valuable task may be to refresh principles so basic as to seem banal, to render them graspable even in the harshest rapids of modernization and development.” \u003ci\u003e—Public Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Shin’s contemplative narrative...captures both the preciousness of life and a constant intermingling sorrow.” —\u003ci\u003eBookreporter\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“I’ll Be Right There\u003c\/i\u003e is a gem of a novel, a quiet, masterful rendering of the emotional life of a young woman looking back on the formative years of her early twenties.” \u003ci\u003e—Rosemary \u0026amp; Reading Glasses\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“A love story between friends. It is so well written. [Kyung-sook Shin] has this use of language that is just beautiful and poetic. It’s a great book if you’re looking to escape.” —Chelsea Handler, #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author\u003cb\u003eKyung-sook Shin\u003c\/b\u003e, the author of seventeen works of is one of South Korea’s most widely read and acclaimed novelists. Her best seller \u003ci\u003ePlease Look After Mom\u003c\/i\u003e has been translated into more than thirty languages. She has been honored with the Man Asian Literary Prize, the Manhae Prize, the Dong-in Literary Award, the Yi Sang Literary Prize, and France’s Prix de l’Inaperçu, as well as the Ho-Am Prize in the Arts, awarded for her body of work for general achievement in Korean culture and the arts.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eSora kim-Russell\u003c\/b\u003e is a poet and translator originally from California and now living in Seoul, South Korea. Her work has appeared in \u003ci\u003eWords Without Borders\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAzalea: A Journal of Korean Literature and Culture\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDrunken Boat\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePebble Lake Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Diagram\u003c\/i\u003e, and other publications. She teaches at Ewha Womans University.It was my first phone call from him in eight years.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e I  recognized his voice right away. As soon as he said, “Hello?” I asked,  “Where are you?” He didn’t say anything. Eight years—it was not a short  length of time. Broken down into hours, the number would be  unimaginable. I say it had been eight years, but we had stopped talking  even before then. Once, at some get-together with friends, we had  avoided each other’s eyes the whole time, and only when everyone was  parting ways did we each other’s hand without the others seeing. That  was it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I don’t remember where we were. Only that it was after  midnight, summer, and we were standing in front of some steep staircase  in a hidden corner of the city. There must have been a fruit stand  nearby. The scent floating in the humid air reminded me of biting into a  plum. Taking his hand and letting it go was my way of saying good-bye. I  did not know what he was thinking, but for me, all of the words I  wanted to say to him had collected inside of me like pearls. I could not  bring myself to say \u003ci\u003egoodbye\u003c\/i\u003e or \u003ci\u003esee you later\u003c\/i\u003e. If I  had opened my mouth to say a single word, all of the other expired words  would have followed and spilled to the ground, as if the string that  held them together had snapped. Since I still clung to the memory of how  we had grown and matured together, I was vexed by the thought that  there would be no controlling my feelings once they came undone. But  outwardly I feigned a look of composure. I did not want to spoil my  memories of how we used to rely on each other.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Time is never  fair or easy for anyone—not now and not eight years ago. When I calmly  asked him where he was, despite not having heard from him in all of that  time, I realized that the words I had not been able to say to him then  were no longer pent up inside me.","brand":"Other Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233249013989,"sku":"NP9781590516737","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590516737_7c0ee45e-3dbd-4a8a-b853-57749f7ceddf.jpg?v=1767729809","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/ill-be-right-there-isbn-9781590516737","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}