Name: [Korean Literature Club] 'I want to die but I want to eat tteokbokki' by Bae Sehee
Start: 2025-12-11T19:30:00+09:00
End: 2025-12-11T21:00:00+09:00
Location: 노스테라스 카페

[Korean Literature Club] 'I want to die but I want to eat tteokbokki' by Bae Sehee

Dear Members and Friends,

For the December meeting, we will read and discuss ‘I want to die but I want to eat tteokbokki’, authored by Baek Sehee and translated by Anton Hur.
The meeting will be led by Jeremy Seligson and held IN-PERSON only.
WHEN_ Thursday. December 11, 2025. 7:30PM (Seoul)
WHERE_B1, North Terrace Cafe (near Anguk Station or Jongno-3 ga Station (Subway Line 1, 3, or 5))
LEADER_Jeremy Seligson
READ_ ‘I want to die but I want to eat tteokbokki’ by Baek Sehee (Translated by Anton Hur)
BOOK PURCHASE:
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Want-Die-but-Tteokbokki-Conversations/dp/1639732047/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0 |
Kyobo https://product.kyobobook.co.kr/detail/S000202494952

ABOUT THE BOOK:
‘Will strike a chord with anyone who feels that their public life is at odds with how they really feel inside.’ Red
PSYCHIATRIST: So how can I help you?
ME: I don’t know, I’m – what’s the word – depressed? Do I have to go into detail?
Baek Sehee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her – what to call it? – depression? She feels persistently low, anxious, endlessly self-doubting, but also highly judgemental of others. She hides her feelings well at work and with friends; adept at performing the calmness, even ease, her lifestyle demands. The effort is exhausting, overwhelming, and keeps her from forming deep relationships. This can’t be normal.
But if she’s so hopeless, why can she always summon a desire for her favourite street food, the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like?
Recording her conversations with her psychiatrist over 12 weeks, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions and harmful behaviours that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Part memoir, part self-help book, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki is a book to keep close and to reach for in times of darkness.
I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki comes in three different colours; the colour you receive will be chosen at random.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Born in 1990, Baek Sehee studied creative writing in university before working for five years at a publishing house. For ten years, she received psychiatric treatment for dysthymia (persistent mild depression), which became the subject of her essays, and then I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, books one and two. Her favorite food was tteokbokki, and she lived with her rescue dog Jaram.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATORS:
Anton Hur was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He is the author of No One Told Me Not To and the novel Toward Eternity. His translations include Bora Chung’s Cursed Bunny, which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and a finalist for the National Book Award.

VENUE:
The ‘North Terrace Cafe (Basement)’ is located at 12 Yulgok-ro 10-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul. Go to Anguk Station on the Orange #3 Line. Go out Exit 4 and do an immediate U-turn on the sidewalk. Then take a right in front of the Japanese Cultural Center and walk towards Changdeok-gung, but on the opposite side of the main street (Yulgok-ro) from the palace.