On the Balance Beam

The new novel from the author of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 Once Ko Mani dreamt of becoming a professional gymnast. Life, however, had other plans for her. Today she has an office job and lives with her parents in the same house and poor part of Seoul in which she grew up. When she unexpectedly finds herself out of work, however, her old ambitions resurface. At the same time property developers start to show an interest in the local area and her mother sniffs an opportunity for her family to finally slip the chains of poverty. Exploring the fine line we all tread between dreams and reality, in On the Balance Beam Cho Nam-Joo tells the story of an ordinary Korean family, capturing their moments of pain, frustration, resilience and love.

Cho Nam-joo is a former television scriptwriter. In the writing of this book she drew partly on her own experience as a woman who quit her job to stay at home after giving birth to a child. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is her third novel. It has had a profound impact on gender inequality and discrimination in Korean society, and has been translated into 18 languages. Jamie Chang is an award-winning translator and teaches at the Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea.