The quirky premise of this novel piqued my interest from the very beginning. The protagonist, Inji, works as a "professional wife" and the novel follows her story as she is requested to marry a music producer for the second time. I liked the pace of the novel and the interactions between the characters, although there were some instances I didn't quite understand. Overall, I enjoyed reading this novel and I also found the translation well done and with a good flow in English.

Noh Inji has a pretty unusual job - she marries someone for a year, shares their life, and then packs up and marries the next client. However, things take a turn when a previous husband sends in a request to marry her again - a request which is honoured.

This book seems to juggle quite a few different themes but I didn’t feel like it really did any of them justice. There a threads on the loneliness epidemic, stalking, troubled family pasts, queerness, and struggles with acceptance but everything just feels….left on a loose end by the end of the book. It almost felt like a curtain was briefly lifted for us to peer into an unconventional life, but it was dropped back down before any real meaning could be gleamed from it.

Unfortunately, I think a lot has been lost in translation here. The writing felt flat, even when quite shocking events were happening. I understand that this book was translated as a group project, and while I commend that as an idea, I feel like the execution may have fallen short.

Thank you to the publishers, and Netgalley, for the copy to review.

I was sent a copy of The Trunk by Kim Ryeo-ryeong to read and review by NetGalley. I am very sorry but I did not finish this book! I got 30% of the way in and I wondered why I was still struggling on. I don’t know if it was the translation from Korean or if the original felt the same, but for me the writing was very flat and uninspiring and there was nothing really happening to keep me interested. I do like ‘slow burners’ which tell just of life, like a snapshot, but the prose of this novel was just too lifeless for me to continue. Apparently the book has been made into a ‘Major Netflix TV series' which hopefully will be rather more interesting than the written form.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the chance to read this book.

Not one for me I'm afraid. The story lacked any form of thrill or real plot line.

A full review given on Goodreads and linked below

When they say marriage is hell...

Taking one of South Korea's national obsessions, marriage, and as the country has done with pop music, television serials and soft power in general, refining it into a commercial success and a craft, Wedding & Life hires out Field Wives and Husbands to those who can afford it, but who can't get married for real. Noh Inji is a relatively successful Field Wife but as she returns to a previous contract husband, the various layers of her life start to collide and overflow, forcing her to question everything about herself.

With a strong Kishotenketsu plot, The Trunk does a lot of good things but a few questionable ones, including an almost unforgivable case of *spoiler• Kill Your Gays. An opaque novel with, as the plot style promises, an eleventh hour twist that sends the story into a whole other direction, The Trunk expects a lot of the reader to understand South Korean culture with some rare anachronisms. I'm interested to see what the Netflix adaptation does for the characters and the high concept.

I had high hopes for this book for the first 15% of the book but then I thought it lost it's way slightly and the plot was not consistent enough for me to keep my interest as it had done at the beginning.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

I started reading this because I enjoyed the Korean drama The Trunk. I liked the book but it is quite different from the drama. I wished that the novel went deeper into the emotional aspects (the drama is intense). But I liked reading about the same world in two different ways, through the eyes of the writer and the Kdrama creator.

DNF, I absolutely love the concept of this but I just didn't feel like I was clicking with it personally

I was excited by this book and read it extremely quickly. It’s definitely a title I’d love to have conversations about as the concept is so interesting and the process of writing must have been an intriguing and unique one. Lots to unpack in the themes and the concerns of this book!

The Trunk is an interesting and unusual book, and the first Korean novel I have read. I started out knowing nothing of Korean culture or literature, which definitely put me at a disadvantage. The story is told from the point of view of Inji, who works for the secretive division of a matchmaking agency that facilitates short-term marriage contracts for wealthy clients on payment of a high annual subscription. Each contract usually lasts a year, and employees have the right to refuse, but three refusals will result in dismissal from the agency. As Inji has already refused two, she has no choice when a former ‘husband’ requests her again.
The main idea of the marriage contracts was intriguing but not explored in enough depth, as there were too many other plot strands introduced but not taken to a satisfying conclusion. Part of the problem is the clunky translation. It was apparently a collaborative exercise undertaken by a group of Australian students, rather than a commission for publication, and I think it shows. It paints a fascinating picture of contemporary Korean society (it was originally published in 2015) but I have nothing to compare it to. The characters are well drawn, though it is difficult to empathise with Inji, and the humour is dark, but the ending is abrupt and made no sense. Unusually for me, I preferred the Netflix series which took the book and adapted it for TV. Overall, I think the writer tried to cover too many themes, but none of them as comprehensively as I would have liked. I enjoyed this introduction to Korean literature, and would be interested in reading more. Thanks to Doubleday and NetGalley for a digital copy to review.

I think whoever wrote the blurb needs to actually read the book... This wasn't a thriller. It is a satire, but not a thriller and they're going to get the wrong audience for this! I still enjoyed it, and I really liked Inji's voice and the exploration of NM as a concept, but it wasn't at all what I was expecting.

I adore translated fiction and I so glad it's becoming more readily available every year. Unfortunately it does mean that the stuff coming out of other countries is more of a mixture of good bad and ugly.

I liked the concept of this book but the execution left much to be desired, many different elements going on from being a single person,to female friendships, to stalking behavior. Unfortunately all of these became muddled, taking away my enjoyment completely.

A Quiet Exploration of Marriage in South Korea

The Trunk by Kim Ryeo-ryeong is an unusual book. While the premise—a secret service renting spouses to the rich—sounds like the setup for drama and intrigue, the story is more like a discussion on what marriage means in modern Korea.

Not much really happens plot-wise, but the book dives into how people approach relationships, societal expectations, and the transactional side of love. Noh Inji, the protagonist, is caught in the middle of this messy world. There are some interesting moments, like her neighbor’s no-nonsense advice about not sleeping around and her best friend suggesting men and women can connect in ways other than sex. These glimpses add depth, but the book often feels repetitive and meandering.

The side characters don’t have much going on—they seem to exist just to make a point or move the discussion forward. While the book is thought-provoking in parts, it doesn’t quite pull you in emotionally or offer a compelling narrative to keep you hooked.

If you’re interested in social commentary about marriage in South Korea, this might resonate with you. Just don’t expect a lot of action or a tightly plotted story.

I think compering "The Trunk" to such works as "Kim Ji-young, Born 1982" or "Convenience Store Woman" has done this publication a major disservice as readers seeking certain motives or tropes will be quite confused. Also, calling this book a "feminist thriller" didn't resonate with me, either. Yes, on a surface level these books explore the subject of marriage and romantic relationship crisis, but each does it in a different way.

Here we are met with an agency that offers clients a contractual "marriage experience". Narrated from the point of view of one of the Field Wives, Inji, quite experienced in this line of career, the story serves to uncover the criminal and highly unethical underbelly of this estimated organisation that caters to presumably wealthy clientele.

What bothered me was first of all, the repetitiveness of Inji's thoughts and experiences. Second of all, and I don't know if this was intentional, I felt like side stories outside the main plot, as well as "supporting" characters were much more interesting and meatier than the protagonist. I'd love to read a spin-off featuring Granny's love quest!

I really enjoy reading books in translation as well as watching films and programmes with subtitles, as I love the insight into other cultures. I began with that disclaimer because I’m really unsure why I found this book so unengaging.

The idea of a future in which an organisation like NM - an agency that provides contractual, hush-hush year long marriages for the rich and famous - exists, does not feel too unlikely. At a time when pretty much everything seems to have become transactional, monetised and politically fraught and when programmes such as ‘Married at First Sight’ are on our screens, it seems within touching distance.

I think that the Field Husbands (FH) and Wives (FW) concept is interesting but I wished that there had been a deeper delve into the intricacies of it and of the agency.

What we get is an emotionally desiccated protagonist who seems incapable of real loyalty or emotional intelligence. She doesn’t experience love and doesn’t want attachment. As a result, for me, the secondary characters were more interesting: the vibrant Granny, the obsessive blind date, the best friend, the husband and the husband’s ex-wife. Even the industrial coffee machine seems to have a richer interior life!

Maybe I need to read it again….

With thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

An intriguing and compelling read however it wasn't the book for me - feels like the translation was missing a lot of nuance. I am particularly interested in the upcoming k-drama adaptation for this though, I have a feeling it might be a better format for the story.

I’m not sure this was really the book for me. Whether it was the translation, my lack of knowledge about Korean culture or the actual story itself, I’m not entirely sure. It started off as an interesting premise with the field wives / husbands but then it got lost for me and I felt I wasn’t really getting the point. I’m sure fans of Korean literature will probably love it though.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Random House UK for a copy in exchange for a review.

Intriguing, provocative, and thought causing.
A well written and gripping novel that kept me reading.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I feel like the translation fell through for me. After reading the blurb, I was quite excited to read it, as the concept is unique and sounds quite fascinating. But the translation did not feel consistent, which gave a more ambiguous vibe to the protagonist. I couldn't understand the protagonist very well and what her true intentions were, and she just seemed very bland, and I'm not sure if this was intentional by the author or was just lost in translation. Some might still enjoy this, but for me, it was just an okay read.

Thanks to Random House UK and NetGalley for the ARC of this intriguing novel.
Inji is a woman on the cusp of 30, who took a postgraduate job at a matchmaking agency of a kind. She now works as a Field Wife, providing marital services on fixed contracts. It's demanding work, but she keeps up some contact with friends and family, most of whom don't know exactly what her job entails.
As we move forward in time through the end of one contract and beginning of another, we find out more about the choices she made that got her here. It's fragmented in the telling, perhaps because of the nature of memory, perhaps because of Inji's dissociation from her own sense of self, that helps her through. I loved the exploration of the concept of the logical capitalist extension to the proliferation of dating apps - marriage returns to being solely a commercial transaction. To go deeper into that would have been another kind of book entirely though. I felt it glanced off the surfaces of some of the ethical concerns, but again that was in keeping with the first person narrative.
There are some fascinating episodes (you'll be unsurprised to learn that the agency doesn't treat its workers or its clients as well as advertised), and although it's confusing at times, which could also be my unfamiliarity with the Korean culture and the naming styles, I was interested throughout.
The ending will be underwhelming for some, with no neat resolution, no ever-after in sight, but I thought that was in keeping with the sense of Inji and her life that we did get.
The process of translation (collaborative) sounds fascinating and I was glad there was an essay about it at the back of the novel.
I can see why it's been optioned for streaming and I'll be looking out for it.