My Brilliant Life

About the Author\nAE-RAN KIM was born in Incheon, South Korea, the youngest of three daughters. She has won the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award, Kim Yu-jeong Literary Award, Lee Hyo-seok Literary Award, and the Prix de l'Inaperçu, among others, for her short fiction and collections. My Brilliant Life is her first novel.\nCHI-YOUNG KIM (translator) is based in Los Angeles, California. She has translated more than a dozen books, including Please Look After Mom by Kyung-sook Shin (Man Asian Literary Prize-winner and New York Times bestseller), and works by You-jeong Jeong, Young-ha Kim, and J.M. Lee.\nA BEST OF THE MONTH SELECTION BY OPRAH MAGAZINE
AN NPR BEST BOOK OF 2021\n“An eminent South Korean talent makes her American début in this poignant watercolor of a novel . . . Kim is a writer on the move.” ―O, The Oprah Magazine\nAe-ran Kim's My Brilliant Life explores family bonds and out-of-the-ordinary friendships, interweaving the past and present of a tight-knit family, finding joy and happiness in even the most difficult times.\nAreum lives life to its fullest, vicariously through the stories of his parents, conversations with Little Grandpa Jang―his sixty-year-old neighbor and best friend―and through the books he reads to visit the places he would otherwise never see.\nFor several months, Areum has been working on a manuscript, piecing together his parents’ often embellished stories about his family and childhood. He hopes to present it on his birthday, as a final gift to his mom and dad; their own falling-in-love story.\nThrough it all, Areum and his family will have you laughing and crying, for all the right reasons.\n“This novel snuck up on me and captured my heart.” ―Margarita Montimore, USA Today bestselling author of Oona Out of Order