“Less a debut and more an arrival, this arresting first novel from Yoojin Grace Wuertz brings to life a South Korea poised on the brink of transformation and the young people caught up in its turbulence. . . . Readers will easily draw parallels between the South Korean generation pictured here and today’s millennials, both groups of young people set to inherit sink-or-swim social orders with huge gaps in wealth. . . . Powerful and absorbing, Everything Belongs to Us introduces a new and compelling voice.”—Shelf Awareness
“Hauntingly relevant . . . hums with exquisite tensions . . . The novel reveals an exciting place and time, in the catalytic sense, and all the more-so for us as visitors who are surrounded by its echoes—class, sex, race—even now.”—Paste
“Engrossing . . . Wuertz is an important new voice in American fiction.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“[A] memorable debut . . . Wuertz crafts a story with delicious scenes and plot threads.”—Publishers Weekly
“An absorbing debut destined for major lists and nominations.”—Booklist
“If South Korea transformed in a generation, this is the generation that transformed it: rich and poor, reckless and disciplined, loyal and faithless. Yoojin Grace Wuertz’s fierce and unforgettable characters embody every contradiction as they do everything they can to ensure their own, and their nation’s, survival. In Everything Belongs to Us, Wuertz has given us a Middlemarch for modern South Korea. She’s woven the whole social tapestry, and made us care about every last thread.”—Susan Choi, author of My Education
“I found myself engrossed in the difficult choices faced by Wuertz’s nuanced, engaging characters as they navigate college politics and romance in 1970s Seoul. I’m thrilled to have experienced their inner lives in these pages—to have celebrated their victories and commiserated in the pain of their mistakes—and would happily have stuck with them for hundreds more.”—Emily Barton, author of The Book of Esther
“What a story! Everything belongs to this terrific debut: love, family, friendship, and politics. I especially loved the two strong-willed and passionate heroines. Their ideals, choices, and struggles make this an utterly rapturous literary page-turner.”—Samuel Park, author of This Burns My Heart
“Historic in scope yet eerily contemporary, Everything Belongs to Us is a stirring debut that immerses readers in a society where some quietly hope for change and others must demand it. In Yoojin Grace Wuertz’s capable hands, characters come alive with desire for a different kind of life, and heartbreak is the price of longing.”—Jung Yun, author of Shelter
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