I Have the Right to Destroy Myself

In the the fast-paced, high-urban landscape of Seoul, C & K are brothers who have fallen in love with the same woman—Se-yeon—who tears at both of them as they all try desperately to find real connection in an atomized world. A spectral, nameless narrator haunts the edges of their lives as he tells of his work helping the lost & hurting find escape through suicide. 

Dreamlike & beautiful, the South Korea brought forth in this novel is cinematic in its urgency & its reflection of contemporary life everywhere—far beyond the boundaries of the Korean peninsula.  Recalling the emotional tension of Milan Kundera & the existential anguish of Bret Easton Ellis, I Have the Right to Destroy Myself achieves its author’s greatest wish—to show Korean literature as part of an international tradition. Young-ha Kim is a young master, the leading literary voice of his generation. 

YOUNG-HA KIM is the author of seven novels—four published in the United States, including the acclaimed I Have the Right to Destroy Myself & the award-winning Black Flower—& five short-story collections. He has won every major Korean literature award, & his works have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He lives in Seoul, South Korea.