Apartment Women, Gu Byeongmo
Apartment Women, Gu Byeongmo
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Apartment Women
A Novel

Author: Gu Byeong-mo

Narrator: Nancy Wu

Unabridged: 4 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/03/2024


Synopsis

*INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER*

From the New York Times Notable author of The Old Woman with the Knife comes a bracingly original story of family, marriage and the cultural expectations of motherhood, about four women whose lives intersect in dramatic and unexpected ways at a government-run apartment complex outside Seoul

When Yojin moves with her husband and daughter into the Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments, she’s ready for a fresh start. Located on the outskirts of Seoul, the experimental community is a government initiative designed to boost the national birth rate. Like her neighbors, Yojin has agreed to have at least two more children over the next ten years.

Yet, from the day she arrives, Yojin feels uneasy about the community spirit thrust upon her. Her concerns grow as communal child care begins and the other parents show their true colors. Apartment Women traces the lives of four women in the apartments, all with different aspirations and beliefs. Will they find a way to live peacefully? Or are the cultural expectations around parenthood stacked against them from the start?

A trenchant social novel from an award-winning author, Apartment Women incisively illuminates the unspoken imbalance of women’s parenting labor, challenging the age-old assumption that “it takes a village” to raise a child.

About Gu Byeong-mo

Gu Byeong-mo an award-winning author. Born in Seoul, South Korea, she now resides in Jinju, South Korea, with her family. The Old Woman with the Knife is her first book to be translated into English.


Reviews

Goodreads review by emma on April 15, 2025

me and my friends. this book, about four families living in a communal apartment building, convinced me that we need to wait for men to die out and then start society over. the writing is simple and abrupt, as is the ending...and the plot...but this successfully made me feel some type of way about the......more

Goodreads review by spillingthematcha on February 13, 2025

Jestem pod dużym wrażeniem jak bardzo obnażający oraz krytyczny charakter ma ta książka. Chociaż niewielka forma nie zapowiada tak złożonej historii, to sama fabuła toczy się wokół naprawdę znaczących tematów takich jak opresja, wyzwania rodzicielstwa, budowanie społeczności, a raczej pewnego rodzaj......more

Goodreads review by Paul on June 20, 2024

The goals of this apartment complex were clear in prioritizing reproduction, in contrast to other social welfare programs. Your Neighbour's Table (2024) is Chi-Young Kim's translation of 네 이웃의 식탁 (2018) by 구병모 (Gu Byeong-mo). This is the second of the author's work in English after Old Woman with the......more

Goodreads review by Wendy on February 28, 2025

RTC......more

Goodreads review by The Bookish Elf on January 02, 2025

In her latest novel, award-winning author Gu Byeong-mo crafts an intricate narrative that delves deep into the lives of four women brought together by an experimental housing project. Following the success of her previous work, The Old Woman with the Knife, Gu once again demonstrates her keen abilit......more