Lie Like Lines

Written in the first person, Lie Like Lines is a coming-of-age novel about the pain and joy of being a queer teenager in the late 1990s and early 2000s in South Korea. Set in the fictional provincial city 'D', the unnamed protagonist grows up against this backdrop, experiencing a heart-fluttering romance, eye-opening friendships and more. But the genre of this novel is not so easily contained - at the same time as this heartfelt story is being recounted, a suspicious mystery is unfolding, with the discovery of a body in a lake in city D rattling the protagonist from the very first pages, while readers are left to wonder how they are linked to this tragedy and who really is the body in the lake. Part-romance, part-mystery, part-thriller, Lie Like Lines perfectly captures the pains of growing up and the difficult path we have to go down to forgive and reconcile with our younger selves.

Praise for Lie Like Lines:

“What should we call an author who perfectly commands a novel (…) and draws readers into an immersion bordering on captivity? You need to be wary of the mid-tempo, summer-song-like opening, the charming characters, and their light-hearted dialogue. Because loving someone entails pain, this novel—which begins pretending to be a coming-of-age story—gradually reveals the face of ruin, and the emphasis shifts from growth to survival. It’s impossible to look away from the distinct ripples Sang Young Park creates. (…) In a world where bodies with their own body heat and scent collide, get hurt, inflict harm, and wreak havoc, the past and present vibrate precariously. There is a strange sense of liberation in the exhaustion that sets in after fully reliving—with the minds of sixteen-, seventeen-, and eighteen-year-olds trapped in City D, which lies just beyond the edge of reality—the emotions that once tore at us. Embracing all these self-inflicted wounds and lacerations, where should we go from here? The answer to that question will likely be found in his next work.” 

– Chung Serang (author)

“While reading Lie Like Lines, I was transported back to a night in the spring of 1983, when, after my first love had fallen apart, I walked back to my house on the hillside pretending to be fine. (…) Until I read this novel, I didn’t realize I remembered that moment so vividly. It must be thanks to Sang Young Park’s poignant prose, which interprets the world by staring emotions straight in the face. We’ve all had emotions that once dwelled in a one-dimensional world.” 

– Byun Young-joo (film director)