The big-hearted, bestselling South Korean memoir
co-written by two best friends flouting gender norms and societal expectations
with their decision to grow old together under one roof.
When most of their peers were moving in with romantic
partners and having children, Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo chose
independence—savoring solitude, quiet mornings, and the unmitigated freedom of
living alone. But in their forties, something shifted, and they were met with a
new, unexpected loneliness. Refusing to settle for the outdated choice between
marriage or isolation, Hana and Sunwoo made a radical decision: to buy a home
and live together—not as lovers, not as roommates, but as chosen family.
Now a bustling household of two women and four cats, Hana
and Sunwoo still value solitude, but can do so while sharing a life and its
meaning with someone else. Together they navigate the challenges and comforts
of cohabiting in midlife, the growing pains of interdependence and the
unexpected rewards of compromise when you’ve grown set in your ways. From sick
days to career wins to aging parents and beach-side retirement plans, they are
redefining domestic bliss on their own terms, where love, partnership, and home
are defined not by tradition, but by choice.
With warmth, wit, and sharp social insight, Hana and Sunwoo
share their blueprint for building a life outside the scripts of marriage and
society’s expectations for women. Two Women Living Together is
a quiet revolution—a celebration of female friendship, community, and the many
forms that love and family can take.
About the Author
Kim Hana is originally from Busan and moved to
Seoul at the age of nineteen. As the host of a podcast for South Korea's
largest online bookstore, she has shared a variety of books and authors with
the general public. Her own books include Golden Bell Sound and Talking
about Speaking. She is the co-host of the Two Women Talking
Together podcast with her co-author and cohabitant Hwang Sunwoo.
Gene Png is a literary translator and
illustrator based in Seoul. She was awarded the Grand Prize in Poetry at the
53rd The Korea Times’ Translation Awards, and was the National Centre for
Writing’s Korean Prose Mentee in 2023 where she was mentored by Anton Hur. Her
translation of Cheon Seon-Ran’s THE SAVIOR AT NIGHT was
published by Bloomsbury in 2025.