bA riveting debut novel set in contemporary Seoul, Korea, about four young women making their way in a world defined by impossible standards of beauty, after-hours room salons catering to wealthy men, ruthless social hierarchies, and K-pop mania/bbrb /bbrb Powerful and provocative . . . a novel about female strength, spirit, resilience and the solace that friendship can sometimes provide. /bibThe Washington Post/b/ibrbrbNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY iTime /i NPR iEsquire Bustle /i BBC  iNew York Post /i iInStyle /ibr/bbrKyuri is an achingly beautiful woman with a hard-won job at a Seoul room salon, an exclusive underground bar where she entertains businessmen while they drink. Though she prides herself on her cold, clear-eyed approach to life, an impulsive mistake threatens her livelihood.br  br Kyuri s roommate, Miho, is a talented artist who grew up in an orphanage but won a scholarship to study art in New York. Returning to Korea after college, she finds herself in a precarious relationship with the heir to one of the country s biggest conglomerates.br  br Down the hall in their building lives Ara, a hairstylist whose two preoccupations sustain her: an obsession with a boy-band pop star, and a best friend who is saving up for the extreme plastic surgery that she hopes will change her life.br  br And Wonna, one floor below, is a newlywed trying to have a baby that she and her husband have no idea how they can afford to raise in Korea s brutal economy.br  br Together, their stories tell a gripping tale at once unfamiliar and unmistakably universal, in which their tentative friendships may turn out to be the thing that ultimately saves them.