If I Had Your Face

A glitteringly dark and unsettling debut novel set in the drinking dens and beauty salons of South KoreaIf I Had Your Face plunges us into the mesmerizing world of contemporary Seoul - a place where extreme 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.

“A brilliant debut”

Absolutely stunning . . . Assured, bold, and electrifying, If I Had Your Face marks the entrance of a bright new voice in fiction -- Taylor Jenkins Reid, bestselling author of DAISY JONES & THE SIX
Culturally fascinating, emotionally layered, gripping and smart -- Curtis Sittenfeld, bestselling author of PREP and AMERICAN WIFE
If you loved Crazy Rich Asians or Daisy Jones And The Six then this is going to be right up your street Grazia
Fascinating, eye-opening, compelling - like the film Parasite, If I Had Your Face is also an exposé of the class system in South Korea Independent
I stayed up til 4am two nights in a row, absolutely riveted and astonished. Remarkable, brilliantly crafted and devastatingly exquisite
The High Low Podcast
Each voice in this quartet cuts through the pages so cleanly and clearly that the overall effect is one of dangerously glittering harmony. The tale told here is as engrossing as a war chant, or a mosaic formed with blades, every piece a memento sharpened on those unyielding barriers between us and our ideal lives. -- Helen Oyeyemi, award-winning author of GINGERBREAD
If I Had Your Face is hilarious, cuttingly observant, feminist, and all-around delightful. It is hard to write a book about four protagonists and make you care for all of them-yet somehow Cha succeeds. -- Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, Costa-shortlisted author of 'Starling Days'
One of the buzziest debuts of the year, If I Had Your Face transports readers to glittering, futuristic Seoul. Essential reading in what Jia Tolentino memorably called the age of Instagram face. Vogue
Compelling, understated, casually brutal, and very cynical. I love it. -- Hanna Jameson, bestselling author of 'The Last'

Frances Cha is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Columbia MFA program, and a former travel & culture reporter for CNN in Seoul. She currently lives in New York City with her family.

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