Finalist for the 2023 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
New York Times Book Review
Notable Book of 2023
New York Times
2023 Critics' Pick
New Yorker
Best Book of 2023 (Essential Read)
NPR Best Book of 2023
TIME
Must-Read Book of 2023
Bookshop.org Best Book of 2023
Chicago Public Library Favorite Book of 2023
Ms.
Magazine Best Book of 2023
It’s as if her life only began once Moon appeared in it. The desultory copywriting work, the boyfriend, and the want of anything not-Moon quickly fall away when she beholds the idol in concert, where Moon dances as if his movements are creating their own gravitational field; on livestreams, as fans from around the world comment in dozens of languages; even on skincare products endorsed by the wildly popular Korean boyband, of which Moon is the youngest, most luminous member. Seized by ineffable desire, our unnamed narrator begins writing Y/N fanfic—in which you, the reader, insert [Your/Name] and play out an intimate relationship with the unattainable star.
Surreal, hilarious, and shrewdly poignant,
Y/N
is a provocative literary debut about the universal longing for transcendence and the tragic struggle to assert one’s singular story amidst the amnesiac effects of globalization. Esther Yi’s prose unsettles the boundary between high and mass art, exploding our expectations of a novel about “identity” and offering in its place a sui generis picture of the loneliness that afflicts modern life.