If I had your face

A glitteringly dark and unsettling debut novel about four young women struggling to survive in contemporary South Korea. If I Had Your Face plunges us into the mesmerizing world of contemporary Seoul — a place where plastic surgery is as routine as getting a haircut, where women compete for spots in secret 'room salons' to entertain wealthy businessmen after hours, where K-pop stars are the object of all-consuming obsession, and ruthless social hierarchies dictate your every move.
Navigating this cut-throat city are four young women balancing on the razor-edge of survival : Kyuri, an exquisitely beautiful woman whose hard-won status at an exclusive 'room salon' is threatened by an impulsive mistake with a client ; her flatmate Miho, an orphan who wins a scholarship to a prestigious art school in New York, where her life becomes tragically enmeshed with the super-wealthy offspring of the Korean elite ; Wonna, their neighbour, pregnant with a child that she and her husband have no idea how they will afford to raise in a fiercely competitive economy ; and Ara, a hair stylist living down the hall, whose infatuation with a fresh-faced K-pop star drives her to violent extremes.