Apartment Women

South Korean author Gu’s (The Old Woman with the Knife) newest social novel focuses on four families living on the outskirts of Seoul in the government-run Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments, where there’s the expectation that each family will have at least three children within 10 years of residency in order to boost the national birth rate. At the start of the novel, none of the Dream Future Pilot couples has met the goal; each has only one or two children, ranging in ages from infancy to age 6. Each couple brings unique circumstances to the mix: a stay-at-home dad and working mom who are barely making ends meet, for example, or a mother who’s trying to determine if one of the husbands, whom she commutes to work with, is indeed making unwanted advances towards her. The book draws readers further into this community as the families attempt to achieve a balance between home life and work life.