Love in the Big City

Love in the Big City is a novel by Sang Young Park. Its English translation was published in 2021 by Grove Atlantic in the US and Tilted Axis Press in the UK, with Anton Hur as the translator. This is the first work made by Park that was published in English. It was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2022. Development The book's English translator Anton Hur lives in South Korea. Hur stated that he found out about the author from reading Korean-language literary magazines, and he had little difficulty translating the dialog. He described the writing style as easy to translate, with what he jokingly called "an Anglo-Saxon vibe". Content The true name of the narrator, a gay man who is HIV positive, is never revealed. Some individuals call him "Mr. Park" and some call him "Mr. Young". The narrator refers to the HIV virus as "Kylie" as in Kylie Minogue. He majored in the French language in university. His mother is an Evangelical Christian; Kirkus Reviews refers to her as "acidic" and "ailing". At one time his mother sent him to a gay conversion therapy center.