'Gripping' Curtis Sittenfeld * 'Electrifying' Taylor Jenkins Reid * 'Remarkable' Kevin Kwan * 'Stunning' Sunday Times * 'Brilliant' Pandora Sykes
In South Korea, where impossible beauty standards and ruthless social hierarchies dictate your every move, four women are balancing on a razor's edge:
Kyuri, a beautiful 'room salon' girl paid to entertain wealthy businessmen after hours.
Miho, an artist whose life becomes enmeshed with the offspring of the super-wealthy elite.
Ara, a hairstylist whose obsession with a K-pop star leads her to violent extremes.
Wonna, their neighbour, pregnant with a child that she can't afford.
Set in the drinking dens and beauty salons of Seoul, If I Had...
Frances Cha is a former travel and culture editor for CNN in Seoul and Hong Kong. She was born in the United States, attended elementary school in Hong Kong and moved to Korea when she was 11. She teaches fiction at the Columbia University MFA program and lives in New York with her family.
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