Under the influence of his mentor, Juno, a manipulative social climber, Sunam becomes entangled with both women, as they all make choices that will change their lives forever. But everything changes when Jisun and Namin meet an ambitious, charming student named Sunam, whose need to please his family has led him to a prestigious club: the Circle. Now Jisun wants as little to do with her father’s world as possible, abandoning her schoolwork in favor of the underground activist movement, while Namin studies tirelessly in the service of one goal: to launch herself and her family out of poverty. Namin’s parents run a tented food cart from dawn to curfew her sister works in a shoe factory.

Jisun, the daughter of a powerful business mogul, grew up on a mountainside estate with lush gardens and a dedicated chauffeur. For childhood friends Jisun and Namin, the stakes couldn’t be more different. Success could lead to a life of rarefied privilege and wealth failure means being left irrevocably behind. At South Korea’s top university, the nation’s best and brightest compete to join the professional elite of an authoritarian regime. Summary: Two young women of vastly different means each struggle to find her own way during the darkest hours of South Korea’s “economic miracle” in a striking debut novel for readers of Anthony Marra and Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie.

Yoojin grace wuertz