When my mother was young (나보다 어렸던 엄마에게_영어자료)

“What if you could reunite with your mother, who took her life thirteen years ago, through AI?”

A moving journey to rediscover the traces of a mother—a woman who was once a bright, ambitious girl and a desperate lover. What must we do to truly understand someone, and to part with them properly?

Beom-woo is a novelist who debuted with a major literary prize worth 100 million won. But he has since spent over a decade with little recognition from the literary world and is struggling to make ends meet. A chance opportunity to ghostwrite the autobiography of a conglomerate chairman lands him a job in the company’s PR department. But soon after, he’s diagnosed with terminal colon cancer. Amid his illness, he embarks on a project to recreate his late mother through AI, confronting long-suppressed resentment and longing.

Upon its release, the novel received significant media attention, including major features and interviews in JoongAng Ilbo, Seoul Economic Daily, Edaily, Naeil Newspaper, and seven other outlets. In 2022, it was selected as part of the government sponsored program that recognizes outstanding publications as a Sejong Book, in the humanities category.

**A 120,000-character English sample manuscript of this work is prepared. If necessary, please feel free to contact the publisher.

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Hillbilly Elegy meets Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982. A powerful and poignant story of a family, poverty and trauma, yet about hope, reconciliation, and liberation.

Bum-woo cannot break away from the nightmares of his mother’s suicide 13 years ago. Guilt soon turned to resentment. A failed law school student. Age 40. One award-winning novel. Ghostwriter. No girlfriend or wife.

When he gets an offer to work for a leading electronic company (with connections from his ghostwriting career), the joy only lasts for few moments as he learns of his critical health condition: stage 4 bowel cancer. Estranged from his hot-tempered father and troublemaker brother, he feels so lonely and miserable. He doesn’t even have the money get treatment.

Then a miracle happens. Bum-woo is invited to join an artificial intelligence research team. He starts to confront with his past and trauma of his mother’s death by recreating the memories of his mother.

He finds his way back to his childhood home, searching for clues and traces of who is mother was, what her life was like, and what her thoughts were before she took her own life. By understanding his poverty-stricken, uneducated, inexperienced, immature parents’ history, he begins to understand and yearn to reconcile with his family again. And to bring peace from the traumatized past. A heartbreaking yet uplifting story of family you cannot choose.

**Mobl Books publishes selected works of literary fiction and nonfiction through separate imprints, focusing on meaningful and well-crafted writing. The name Mobl derives from the Chinese characters 無不 (mu-bul), meaning “nothing is not” or “all are,” symbolizing the publisher’s commitment to producing meaningful and valuable works. To date, Mobl has published fourteen titles across fiction and the humanities, five in real estate, and eight in social studies and business.

Jung Jin-young is the author of the novels A Journey to Dohwa Village; Silence Advisory; Jenga; Valentine’s Day, Again; To My Mom Who Was Younger Than Me; and The Politician. His short story collection A Painful Night, We Dance and essay collections Small Talks on Comfort and Fiction Grows on Failure have also been published. He is the recipient of both the Chosun Ilbo Fantasy Literary Award and the Baekho Lim Je Literary Award. Silence Advisory was adapted by JTBC into the television drama Hush, and To My Mom Who Was Younger Than Me was dramatized for KBS Radio. He is a member of the Paycheck Realism writers’ circle.

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Jung Jin-young won the Chosun Ilbo Fantasy Literature award for his first novel <A Trip to Dohwa Village>. He worked as a journalist. His works include <Silent Warning><Jenga><Again, Valentine> and <When My Mother Was Young> is the author’s 5th novel. <Silent Warning> was made into TV drama series and <Jenga> is also going to be made into TV series.

1. The End

2. Memory

3. Record

4. Confession

5. Testimony

6. The Beginning

The words of the author

Commentary

To My Mom Who Was Younger Than Me explores a universal emotional landscape that transcends time and place. Beyond the personal story of a troubled family—marked by hardship, conflict, and a mother’s unexpected suicide. It offers a deeply resonating portrayal of the lives and wounds of those left behind, rendered with solid storytelling and emotional depth. Amid growing public interest in AI technologies that recreate the deceased and allow for conversation, the novel raises a profound question: is true communication or reconciliation with the dead ever possible?

The novel was selected as a Sejong Book in 2022 and is currently being considered for screen adaptation by several production companies. JTBC adapted the author’s earlier work, Silence Advisory, into the TV drama Hush. Like that series, this novel has the potential to share a distinctly Korean yet universal sensibility with a wider audience.

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**Signed a translation and publication contract with Tianjin Staread Cultural Communication (China) in November 2024.

**Featured in major Korean media outlets including JoongAng Ilbo, Seoul Economic Daily, Naeil Newspaper, and Edaily in July 2021, with additional coverage in Maeil Business Newspaper, Munhwa Ilbo, Seoul Shinmun, The Korea Times, and The Dong-A Ilbo.

**In March 2024, author Jung Jin-young was featured as the first interviewee in The Korea Times series Life, Too. The series spotlighted individuals bereaved by suicide.

**Sejong Book, a government-sponsored program recognizing outstanding publications.