A key theme is the strong preference for sons in her society, which touches and affects even those who personally do not strongly agree with the prejudice. Kim Jiyoung is the second daughter of a family with two daughters and one son, the youngest. It shows the discrimination and social judgement the women faced, their thoughts and feelings on it, and how they responded. The book presents not only the ordinary but trying hardships the eponymous character had to go through from her early childhood, but also covers the experiences of other women that she knew.

The narrative then backtracks, and tells us the story of the life of Kim Jiyoung including a short family history, her birth, growing up and an adult life. Her husband is concerned and she is taken in to get psychiatric help.

The novel opens with a young Korean woman experiencing a strange problem, Kim Jiyoung is fully impersonating other women she knows, and does not seem self-aware of the fact. The book has six chapters, each one narrating a different stage in Kim Jiyoung's life. It focuses on the everyday sexism the title character experiences from youth. The story-line centers on a housewife who becomes a stay-at-home mother and later suffers from depression. That's why I was able to write so quickly without much preparation.' Published by Minumsa in October 2016, it has sold more than 1 million copies as of 27 November 2018, becoming the first million-selling Korean novel since Shin Kyung-sook's Please Look After Mom in 2009. A former scriptwriter for TV programs, Cho took two months to write the story as according to her, the title character 'Kim Ji-young's life isn't much different from the one I have lived. Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 ( Korean: 82년생 김지영) is a novel by Cho Nam-Joo.

Kim ji young book review