I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki: the South Korean hit therapy memoir recommended by BTS’s RM

by Baek Se-Hee

Anton Hur (Translator)

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Book cover for I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki

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THE PHENOMENAL KOREAN BESTSELLER
TRANSLATED BY INTERNATIONAL BOOKER SHORTLISTEE ANTON HUR

PSYCHIATRIST: So how can I help you?


ME: I don’t know, I’m – what’s the word – depressed? Do I have to go into detail?


Baek Sehee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her – what to call it? – depression? She feels persistently low, anxious, endlessly self-doubting, but also highly judgemental of others. She hides her feelings well at work and with friends; adept at performing the calmness, even ease, her lifestyle demands. The effort is exhausting, overwhelming, and keeps her from forming deep relationships. This can't be normal.

But if she's so hopeless, why can she always summon a desire for her favourite street food, the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like?

Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist over a 12-week period, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions and harmful behaviours that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Part memoir, part self-help book, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki is a book to keep close and to reach for in times of darkness.
  • ISBN10 152665086X
  • ISBN13 9781526650863
  • Publish Date 23 June 2022
  • Publish Status Inactive
  • Out of Print 31 May 2022
  • Publish Country GB
  • Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
  • Format Hardcover (UK Trade)
  • Pages 208
  • Language English