Baek Se-hee, the South Korean author of the bestselling memoir I Want to Die but I Want To Eat Tteokbokki has died at the age of 35.
Her 2018 book, a compilation of conversations with her psychiatrist about her depression, was a cultural phenomenon with its themes of mental health resonating with readers across the world.
I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, published in 2018 in Korea and 2022 in the UK by Bloomsbury, follows Baek’s conversations with her psychiatrist about her dysthymia, which is persistent depression, and includes mini essays.
A follow-up, I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki, was published in the UK last year. Tteokbokki, Baek’s favourite food, is a Korean diash of rice cakes cooked in a spicy sauce.
The details surrounding her death are unclear.
Baek donated her organs – her heart, lungs, liver and kidneys – which have helped to save five lives, the Korean Organ Donation Agency said in a statement on Friday.
The statement also included comments from her sister, which said that Baek had wanted to “share her heart with others through her work, and to inspire hope”.
I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, published in 2018, has sold more than a million copies worldwide and been translated in 25 countries.
The runaway bestseller was celebrated for normalising mental health conversations and its nuanced take on inner struggles – most notably, the author’s personal conflict between depressive thoughts and her appreciation for simple joys.
The first book has sold about 600,000 copies in Korea, and over a million copies worldwide, having been published in more than 25 countries.
Born in 1990, Baek studied creative writing at university before working for five years at a publishing house.
She received psychiatric treatment for 10 years. The idea for her memoir began after she posted notes from therapy in a blog, and received positive feedback. When one commenter “said it was like a light was shining into the darkness of their life, I was so surprised”, she said in a 2023 interview with PEN. Writing a book had been a “bucket list” item, and “I was having trouble finding the right theme, but I realised something I could write about with some authority was depression.”
Baek said that writing “can help you see yourself from different angles,” which “can be a way of regarding yourself three-dimensionally.”
Baek “wanted to write, to share her heart with others through her work, and to inspire hope”, said her sister in a statement reported by the Korea Herald. “Knowing her gentle nature, incapable of harbouring hatred, I hope she can now rest peacefully.”
