Advertisement

Book review: Everything Belongs to Us – story of elite university students in post-war Korea and their personal struggles

Yoojin Grace Wuertz’s debut novel follows the lives of a group of Seoul National University students in the late 1970s, when South Korea had forsaken personal liberties for economic growth

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
A South Korean military parade in 1973 honouring president Park Chung-hee, whose rigid, conservative nation serves as the stark backdrop in Everything Belongs to Us.
Advertisement

Everything Belongs to Us

by Yoojin Grace Wuertz

Random House

3/5 stars

Advertisement

South Korea was not always the prosperous, democratic country it is now. Just a few decades ago, back in the late 1970s, it was relatively poor and ruled by a harsh authoritarian regime desperate to catch up with the West while cracking down on any form of public dissent. This is the turbulent backdrop against which Everything Belongs to Us by Yoojin Grace Wuertz takes place.

Advertisement