South Korean author Baek Se-hee, whose bestselling memoir I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki resonated with readers worldwide for its candid portrayal of depression and hope, has died at the age of 35, according to the Korean Organ Donation Agency.
The agency confirmed Thursday that Baek donated her heart, lungs, liver, and both kidneys, saving the lives of five people. No cause of death was disclosed.
Baek's 2018 debut memoir, which combined psychiatric dialogue with personal reflection, became a cultural phenomenon in South Korea for its raw honesty about therapy, emotional pain, and small joys. The title referred to her favorite food-tteokbokki, a spicy Korean rice-cake dish-and encapsulated her struggle to find reasons to live amid persistent depression.
"Even when I changed all the parts of my life that I had wanted to change - my weight, education, partner and friends - I was still depressed," she wrote. "I didn't always feel that way, but I would go in and out of a funk that was as inevitable as bad weather."
The book sold about 600,000 copies in South Korea and more than one million worldwide, translated into over 25 languages since its 2022 English release by Bloomsbury. It reached The Sunday Times Bestsellers List in the U.K. and earned a recommendation from The New York Times. Her follow-up, I Want to Die But I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki, published in 2019, chronicled her continued therapy and reflections on living with dysthymia-a long-term, low-level form of depression.
Born in 1990, Baek studied creative writing at university and later worked as a social media director for a publishing house. The idea for her memoir began after she anonymously posted excerpts from her therapy sessions online. When one commenter said "it was like a light was shining into the darkness of their life, I was so surprised," Baek told PEN in a 2023 interview. Writing "can help you see yourself from different angles," she said. "It can be a way of regarding yourself three-dimensionally."
Her younger sister, Baek Da-hee, released a statement through the organ donation agency describing her as someone who "wrote, shared her heart with others through her writing, and hoped to nurture dreams of hope." She added, "I know her kind heart, one that loved so much and hated no one, so I hope she now rests in peace in heaven. I love you so much."
Anton Hur, Baek's English translator, paid tribute to her in an Instagram post: "Her readers will know she touched yet millions of lives more with her writing. My thoughts are with her family."
