SEOUL— Baek Se-hee, the South Korean author who gave voice to a generation’s quiet struggle with mental health through her internationally beloved memoir, I Want To Die But I Want To Eat Tteokbokki, has died at the age of 35. Her passing, the cause of which has not been disclosed, has sent shockwaves across the global literary community that had embraced her raw honesty and vulnerability.
In a poignant final act mirroring the compassion of her writing, the Korean Organ Donation Agency confirmed that Ms. Baek saved five lives through the donation of her heart, lungs, liver, and both kidneys.
The Paradoxical Truth of Dysthymia
Published in Korea in 2018, the book quickly became a cultural phenomenon, selling over a million copies worldwide and being translated into more than 25 languages. It was a fusion of memoir and self-help, chronicling her candid conversations with her psychiatrist about dysthymia, a persistent, mild form of depression that she battled for over a decade.
Baek’s genius lay in capturing the paradoxical nature of emotional pain through her instantly recognizable title. The book’s central theme is summarized in a line that resonated with millions: “The human heart, even when it wants to die, quite often wants at the same time to eat some tteokbokki, too.”
Tteokbokki, a beloved Korean comfort food of spicy rice cakes, served as a simple, powerful metaphor for the persistence of small, life-affirming joys even in the darkest periods of depression.
A Generation’s Mirror
Ms. Baek’s work was lauded for pulling the often-silenced subject of mental illness, particularly high-functioning depression, into the mainstream. She articulated the dissonance between her outwardly successful life and the gnawing inner reality of self-doubt and emotional numbness.
Her translator, Anton Hur, who brought the book’s intimate style to English readers, wrote of her passing, “But her readers will know she touched yet millions of lives more with her writing.”
In a statement shared by the organ donation agency, Ms. Baek’s younger sister described her wish to connect with others: “She wanted to write, to share her heart with others through her work, and to inspire hope. Knowing her gentle nature, incapable of harbouring hatred, I hope she can now rest peacefully.”
A creative writing graduate who spent five years working in publishing before finding her own voice, Baek Se-hee’s legacy is one of brave authenticity. Her words remain a powerful reminder that being broken doesn’t mean being unreadable, and that sometimes, a simple, delicious desire is reason enough to keep going.