A novel that became a runaway bestseller in Korea is now on track to repeat its success in the U.S. Please Look After Mom by Shin Kyung-sook has already gone into a second printing after a record 100,000-copy first run even before the April 5 official release date.
The novel describes a family’s search for their mother who disappeared into the crowd at a Seoul subway station. Knopf allotted a 100,000-copy first print run for the novels U.S. debut, an unprecedented number for a foreign writer. Amazon is selling the hardback at $24.95.
The reviews have been so positive that the book sold out the first print run on the strength of pre-orders. Barnes and Nobel has already listed the novel among the top 15 big books of the year.
Shin is scheduled to go on a book tour of seven U.S. cities and eight countries in Europe. The U.S. tour will begin in Seattle, Washington on April 11 and continue on to Philadelphia, New York and Pittsburgh. The European leg starts on May 18 in Madrid and goes on to Portugal, Italy, the U.K., France and Poland and ends in mid-June.
“It looks like things have gotten off to a good start,” Shin said. “It is a very packed schedule and I hope everything will go smoothly.”
She and her husband, a literary critic, have been staying in New York since last summer as visiting researchers at Columbia University.
