50
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Featured Preorders
    • Award Winners
    • Audio Books
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • Bookseller Displays
    • 50 Books for 50 Years
    • 25 Best 21st Century Sci-Fi & Fantasy
    • 25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Journals and Notebooks
    • socks
    • Games
  • Sell Books
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store

Don't Miss

  • Proud Voices Sale
  • PNW Authors Sale
  • Powell's Author Events
  • Oregon Battle of the Books
  • Audio Books

Visit Our Stores


Powell's Staff: Books to Fill the TV-Shaped Hole in Your Heart (0 comment)
This last week, we had to say goodbye to TV shows about a complicated, rich family; a murdery, wannabe actor; an enthusiastically kind football coach and his team; and a would-be stand-up comedian in 1950s New York. We already miss them...
Read More»
  • Theodore McCombs: Impolite Influences: Theodore McCombs’s Bookshelf for ‘Uranians’ (0 comment)
  • Jenny Fran Davis: My Novel’s Clique: Jenny Fran Davis’s Bookshelf for 'Dykette' (0 comment)

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

Everything Belongs to Us

by Yoojin Grace Wuertz
Everything Belongs to Us

  • Comment on this title
  • Synopses & Reviews

ISBN13: 9780812998542
ISBN10: 0812998545



All Product Details

View Larger ImageView Larger Images
Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
0.00
Hardcover
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist

Synopses & Reviews

Synopsis

Two young women of vastly different means each struggle to find her own way during the darkest hours of South Korea s economic miracle in a striking debut novel for readers of Anthony Marra and Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie.

Seoul, 1978. At South Korea s top university, the nation s best and brightest compete to join the professional elite of an authoritarian regime. Success could lead to a life of rarefied privilege and wealth; failure means being left irrevocably behind.
For childhood friends Jisun and Namin, the stakes couldn t be more different. Jisun, the daughter of a powerful business mogul, grew up on a mountainside estate with lush gardens and a dedicated chauffeur. Namin s parents run a tented food cart from dawn to curfew; her sister works in a shoe factory. Now Jisun wants as little to do with her father s world as possible, abandoning her schoolwork in favor of the underground activist movement, while Namin studies tirelessly in the service of one goal: to launch herself and her family out of poverty.
But everything changes when Jisun and Namin meet an ambitious, charming student named Sunam, whose need to please his family has led him to a prestigious club: the Circle. Under the influence of his mentor, Juno, a manipulative social climber, Sunam becomes entangled with both women, as they all make choices that will change their lives forever.
In this sweeping yet intimate debut, Yoojin Grace Wuertz details four intertwining lives that are rife with turmoil and desire, private anxieties and public betrayals, dashed hopes and broken dreams while a nation moves toward prosperity at any cost.
Advance praise for Everything Belongs to Us
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"

1 1

What Our Readers Are Saying

Share your thoughts on this title!
Average customer rating 1 (1 comments)

`
The Avid Reader , March 04, 2017 (view all comments by The Avid Reader)
Everything Belongs to Us is a debut novel by Yoojin Grace Wuertz. It is 1978 in Seoul, South Korea. Jisun, Namin, Juno and Sunam are all going to college, but each one of them is different. Jisun and Namin are friends, though, they are from very different backgrounds. Jisun is from a wealthy family and she protests every single thing her father believes in. She has joined the underground activist movement despite her father’s efforts to curtail her activities. Namin’s parents work hard running their food cart while Namin studies to become a doctor. She needs to graduate and then help her family especially her disabled brother. Juno Yoon is a member of the Circle and Sunam would like to join. Juno has become Sunam’s mentor in teaching him the right way to behave (basically, Sunam does Juno’s bidding). Their college years are just the beginning. Read Everything Belongs to Us to see how these four students evolve and where they eventually end up. I had a hard time reading Everything Belongs to Us. It took me three tries to get through the whole novel. The story shows people at each end of the spectrum. We can see how money can corrupt a person and change their personality. These young people are discovering who they are and what they want. I did appreciate the epilogue (even if I did not like how the book ended). I wish, though, that it had not been written from just one character’s perspective (would have preferred third person). It was interesting to see how the 70s played out in a different country (one of the reasons I choose to read this book). I found the writing to be overformal and flat. It reminded me of some textbooks I read in college. I could not get involved in the story. Part of the reason is the wandering storylines. The book jumps from character to character. Then we are in the present and then the past. I was not a fan of the characters (another reason I could not get into this novel). There are the expected college exploits and the various romantic relationships. I ended up skimming through sections after a while. I read the first 1/3 of the book, the middle section, and the last third (it was the best I could do with this novel). I give Everything Belongs to Us 1 out of 5 stars (I really did not like this book). The author was very thorough in her details. Some scenes are a little off-putting. This novel sounded fascinating, but I was not the right reader for Everything Belongs to Us.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(0 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment




Product Details

ISBN:
9780812998542
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
02/28/2017
Publisher:
Random House
Pages:
368
Height:
1.40IN
Width:
6.60IN
Author:
Yoojin Grace Wuertz

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
0.00
Hardcover
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Used Book Alert for book Receive an email when this ISBN is available used.
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

  • Help
  • Guarantee
  • My Account
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Security
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Shipping
  • Transparency ACT MRF
  • Sitemap
  • © 2023 POWELLS.COM Terms

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##