Love in the Big City

A Novel

By: Sang Young Park, Anton Hur - translator

Narrated by: Daniel K. Isaac

Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur

A funny, transporting, surprising, and poignant novel that was one of the highest-selling debuts of recent years in Korea, Love in the Big City tells the story of a young gay man searching for happiness in the lonely city of Seoul.

Love in the Big City is the English-language debut of Sang Young Park, one of Korea’s most exciting young writers. A runaway best seller, the novel hit the top five lists of all the major bookstores, went into 26 printings, and was praised for its unique literary voice and perspective. It is now poised to capture a worldwide audience.

Young is a cynical yet fun-loving Korean student who pinballs from home to class to the beds of recent Tinder matches. He and Jaehee, his female best friend and roommate, frequent nearby bars where they push away their anxieties about their love lives, families, and money with rounds of soju and ice-cold Marlboro Reds that they keep in their freezer. Yet over time, even Jaehee leaves Young to settle down, leaving him alone to care for his ailing mother and to find companionship in his relationships with a series of men, including one whose handsomeness is matched by his coldness, and another who might end up being the great love of his life.

A brilliantly written novel that takes us into the glittering nighttime of Seoul and the bleary-eyed morning after with both humor and emotion, Love in the Big City is a wry portrait of millennial loneliness as well as the abundant joys of queer life.

©2019 Sang Young Park; English translation 2021 by Anton Hur. Originally published in Korea in 2019 as Daedosiui Sarangbeop by Changbi Publishers. Recorded by arrangement with Grove Press, an imprint of Grove Atlantic, Inc. (P)2021 Audible, Inc.

Narrated by: Daniel K. Isaac

The novel is fun, but the narrator is even more impressive than expected. Daniel K. Isaac does a wonderful job; I cannot imagine the audiobook could be narrated by anybody else. Daniel makes the book so animated. I will love to listen to more audio books from him!!!

Hurts so good

Makes me wanna fall inlove again. I didn’t know that this is a LGBTQA+ book, my fault. But I fell inlove with the story!

Stunning Narrative

Impeccable storytelling, intricate characters and nuanced banality. Gorgeous work of art all around, highly recommend.

I appreciate it for its uniqueness

It was fine. I wish the protagonist was a little more likeable. I didn’t find myself rooting for him particularly. I wish the audiobook narrator was a bit more snarky and feminine, instead of bitter and masculine. His voice also often sounded a bit too hoarse where it didn’t fit the content. The world was very interesting. I thought I remembered an interview where it was said that there was only one white character in the book - Kylie Minogue. That’s not true. There was also a straight white couple in a pool. There were also characters whose races weren’t mentioned, so could have easily been white, too. Like the man kissing with the protagonist in front of the Hamilton Hotel. Overall it was a fine book. I think some parts made me laugh a little. But nothing was touching, sadly. I wonder how similar the main character’s life is to the author. I hope he’s happier now. I might have enjoyed this more as a short story collection than a short novel.

Must listen.

Daniel’s performance on this book was superb. The story itself creates the most satisfying and devastating rollercoaster ride. I highly recommend this book and I am still floored by Daniel’s reading of it. It has become my favorite audiobook experience.

A devastating portrait

A fun-loving young gay man takes care of his disapproving mother as she loses her battle with cancer. Along the way he goes through relationships, deals with HIV and because of his HIV is forced to tell a lover to leave him and go chase his dream. He then grows older, gains four inches around his waist and realizes he's all alone.

A fascinating story about growing up

Love in the Big City is that, an exploration of love in different stages of a life. Several kind of loves and how we deal with each one.

sad memoir

the description makes it seem like a contemporary fiction novel but it was really just a super depressing memoir. I kept waiting for it to get better and it just never did, and then it just abruptly ended

Waste of time

I found the entire story to be pointless and boring. There were odd moments of point of view changes that I still don't know if they were intentional or translation mistakes.