Tailbone

With this story of how we betray and are betrayed, by others but especially by ourselves, Che Yeun has given us an unforgettable debut novel, indelible, knowing, powerful, consuming. This marks the start of a major career.

Alexander Chee, author of HOW TO WRITE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL

A gripping coming of age tale as savage as it is astounding, Tailbone seduces one first with voice, then swells and electrifies from within the storied walls of the Seoul boarding house in which anything is possible. Tailbone introduces Che Yeun as one of the absolute greats, an extraordinary stylist and singular storyteller of our time.

T Kira Madden, author of WHIDBEY and LONG LIVE THE TRIBE OF FATHERLESS GIRLS

With sharp and arresting prose, Che Yeun’s Tailbone fearlessly examines a South Korea on the brink of economic collapse. A haunting, unforgettable story about survival in all its forms.

Jenny Tinghui Zhang, author of FOUR TREASURES OF THE SKY and SUPERFAN

Che Yeun's debut novel marks the arrival of a bold, assured voice. Unflinching and devastating, Tailbone is a novel best read in one sitting so that it can be immediately reread. Rich in metaphor and social realism, Yeun's Seoul-set tale is also relentlessly propulsive. This story of a young woman's personal awakening is destined to become a literary classic.

Maurice Carlos Ruffin, author of THE AMERICAN DAUGHTERS and WE CAST A SHADOW

In terse yet poignant prose, Che Yeun's debut takes an unflinching look at what it means for a teenage girl to come of age in a society wracked by economic instability, consumerism, and desperation. A story of friendship and resilience, Tailbone is at once gritty and tender — a trim novel that nevertheless packs an emotional weight

Karissa  Chen, author of HOMESEEKING

An absolutely astonishing debut, a haunting portrait of young lives on the edge of ruin. Che Yeun writes as if her heart were on fire. Her heroine, a teen runaway, leads us into the rotting heart of Seoul, a city crashing into financial ruin. But her story is universal. It is a dark and tender fairytale about women enslaved by the violent needs of men who are, in turn, enslaved by the humiliations of capitalism. Tailbone is one of those books I devoured, and that devoured me. It is a small, fierce masterpiece.

Steve Almond, author of ALL THE SECRETS OF THE WORLD

A searing debut by an exceptional writer. Every image here sizzles, every sentence captures a young woman's run for escape with startling precision and vividness. I'm haunted by what it reveals about violence and power.

Bruna Dantas Lobato, author of BLUE LIGHT HOURS

Che Yeun lays out the ways admiration can calcify and crack, the tragedy of growing up too fast against a background of intense national struggle and change, and the poignant loss of youth that only some of us get to grieve. A brutal, beautiful debut.

Jemimah Wei, author of THE ORIGINAL DAUGHTER

Gritty and unflinching, Che Yeun’s Tailbone is a mesmerizing portrayal of the precarity and peril of modern Seoul. The narrator, a teenage runaway, forges a friendship with the fiery Juju, who teaches her how to survive amid economic and social tumult. Yet escape remains elusive. A haunting debut

Vanessa Hua, author of FORBIDDEN CITY

A fierce debut set in Seoul in 2008 following an unnamed teenage girl escaping an abusive home to live in a women’s boarding house during the global financial crisis.

Electric Literature

A tense, chilling portrait of a teenager's perilous journey into unprepared independence…Yeun writes with glaring clarity, exposing a tortuous cycle of twisted hope and bleak reality, exacerbated by a sweeping financial downturn that further threatens the girls' already tenuous existence. Societal--and personal--judgment stifles these girls, already openly commodified, but Yeun hauntingly commits to amplifying their humanity, as they confess uncertainty, fight invisibility, savor fleeting moments of kindness and empathy.

Shelf Awareness

Che Yeun’s stunning debut is a coming-of-age tale set in Seoul during the 2008 global financial
crisis…Readers will be riveted by this sharp, unflinching commentary on class, gender, privilege, and resilience.

Booklist (starred review)

Yeun offers a no-holds-barred view into her narrator’s hardscrabble life, from her family home where “the boil of our underwear warmed our rooms,” to the ways in which men’s rage and shame over their financial failure manifest into violence against women. This is incandescent.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)