her drug of choice — embedded pieces of herself in all four characters, each of whom exhibit a depth and complexity that allows the reader to forge a bond with them despite the singularity of their circumstances.
As a former CNN Seoul reporter, Cha strived to do something with her novel that her experience in journalism primed her for: Provide cultural context for an audience largely unfamiliar with modern Korea without sounding like an encyclopedia. “There's a very fine balance to that,” Cha says, adding that she was also careful not to exoticize her characters and their circumstances.
This wasn’t the only misconception Cha sought to correct. Her inspiration for the novel was drawn in part by the dearth of English language fiction set in Korea. “I think Korea is still associated with the war, [and with] North Korea,” she says. “And it's such a different landscape from historical fiction that has been in American fiction to date.”
There is one other thing American audiences might associate with modern day Korea: Cosmetic surgery. The country has one of the highest numbers of cosmetic procedures per capita, withIf I Had Your Face delves into this phenomenon with both Kyuri and Ara’s roommate Sujin, who’s convinced cosmetic surgery will dramatically alter the trajectory of her life. But there’s a key difference between the characters’ frank discussion of double-eyelid surgery and jawline reduction procedures and the hushed “she?” of Americans looking up “before and after” photos to determine whether their favorite A-lister had her nose done.