Petty Lies - by Sulmi Bak (Paperback)

About the Book

"Mira is a desperate young woman, hired by a wealthy single mother to tutor her lonesome son, Yuchan. But Mira is not who she presents herself to be; she is haunted by the death of her own family and motivated by the dark pulse of vengeance. Yuchan was cruel to Mira's mother. A kind of cruelty she can't ever forgive. And then there is Jiwon, the boy's mother, a bad mother, Mira thinks--or so Jiwon tells herself she must not be. But as Mira spends more time in the family's sprawling home, she begins to suspect Yuchan is not the culprit she's after. Someone else in the family has been pulling the strings. Someone with a deviant plan she can't begin to imagine"--

Book Synopsis

We Need to Talk About Kevin meets The Vegetarian in this chilling epistolary novel of four characters locked in a frightening cycle of vengeance and comeuppance.

Mira is a desperate young woman, hired by a wealthy single mother to tutor her lonesome son, Yuchan. But Mira is not who she presents herself to be; she is haunted by the death of her own family and motivated by the dark pulse of vengeance. Yuchan was cruel to Mira's mother. A kind of cruelty she can't ever forgive.

And then there is Jiwon, the boy's mother, a bad mother, Mira thinks--or so Jiwon tells herself she must not be.

But as Mira spends more time in the family's sprawling home, she begins to suspect Yuchan is not the culprit she's after. Someone else in the family has been pulling the strings. Someone with a deviant plan she can't begin to imagine.

Structured around four different letters and journal entries: Mira's, Jiwon's reply, Yuchan's younger brother's diary entry and, finally, Mira's own written recollection. Each new section brings us deeper into a web of cruelty, consequence, and closer to the truth.

Review Quotes

" An appallingly propulsive, can't-turn-away-from nightmare awaits."--Booklist

"A spot-on portrait of psychopathy and manipulation. Just when you think you've figured Petty Lies out, it opens a new mouth and shows you a new set of fangs."--Brian Evenson, author Last Days

"Bak skillfully weaves the themes of guilt, family, and retribution to create a psychologically potent story that is at once compelling and profoundly disturbing. A provocative thriller that probes the dark side of the human heart."--Kirkus Reviews

"I read Sulmi Bak's chilling exploration of cruelty and care like I was sitting in an operating theatre. Each of the narrators in Bak's arresting debut is eager to peel back their skin for each other, to reveal who they are and explain--in spare, scalpular prose--why they did what they did. Then again, maybe there's a reason they call it a theatre. Like Yoko Ogawa, Bak is a commanding and disturbing writer, fearless in her interrogation of hidden violences and masterful at ensuring the reader can't turn away from them."--Eugenie Montague, author of Swallow the Ghost

About the Author

Sulmi Bak, born in 1984, majored in journalism and chose to become a novelist while preparing for examination for a top gaming company in Korea. Petty Lies is her debut novel, followed by two other stand-alone novels, The Silence of the Swan and Dalwhinnie Hotel.