Plant Lady

By: Kang Minyoung, Shanna Tan - translator

In the heart of a quiet town, a young woman tends to her plant shop, but beneath the surface of her lush, green sanctuary lies something far darker....

Will you dare to disrespect her plants?

Tucked away in the corner of a neighborhood in Dosan, South Korea, is the Plant Shop. Shop owner Yoohee has started anew, and her meticulously grown foliage thrives under her tender care. To both her customers and herself, Plant Shop is a refuge, where petunias and marigolds bloom and the air itself is like an elixir of peace.

By day, Yoohee dispenses advice on gardening, but she also finds herself offering a special service off the clock. Women who are at their wits’ end come to her about a man they hope might disappear from their lives. Pulling extra hours is taxing, but Yoohee has encountered—and dealt with—these kind of men in her own life, men who treated her (and her beloved plants) with utter disrespect. So as night falls, Yoohee trades her apron for a shovel and a hoe and disappears into her moonlit garden. There, she buries not just the remains of the day, but also the bloody remnants of a few unfortunate encounters.

As men begin to disappear…will anyone ever suspect the Plant Lady?

A highly acclaimed novel from South Korea, Plant Lady brings atmospheric tension and delicate humor to a story of obsession and misogyny that will keep you rooted right to its simmering last page.

Critic reviews

"Somehow gentle yet full of quiet rage, Plant Lady is sparse, haunting and timely, but above all, it's compulsively readable. I tore through it, cheering for Yoohee the entire way."—Parini Shroff, bestselling author of The Bandit Queens


"[A] thoroughly entertaining, admittedly chilling, distinctly satisfying novel...With astute clarity and poignant empathy…Kang powerfully presents a well-deserved antidote to male violence."—Shelf Awarenes