The Future Perfect - by Cay Kim (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Cay Kim's debut novel is a portrait of a young woman growing up between worlds, and a love letter to girlhood, family, and the great dreams we hold for ourselves, no matter where we're from"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

"A masterful and unforgettable debut." --Paul Beatty

"Elegant and deeply felt." --Charles Yu

"A book I have been waiting for all my life." --Crystal Hana Kim

A radiant portrait of a young woman caught between cultures, and what is lost and found in the struggle to succeed.

Before you are anything, you are a daughter.

At first you are at home inside your pregnant mother: a beloved daughter, a vision of the future. But who will you become?

As your family moves back and forth between Korea and the United States, you find yourself caught between two countries. Prioritizing your future over her own happiness, your mother marshals you through a childhood of homework and violin practice and academic achievement to shape you into the person she most wants you to be. Is hers the ultimate form of love? And, despite her sacrifices, is there a world somewhere between your motherland and homeland that can feel like your own?

Told in incandescent prose, Cay Kim's exquisite debut novel is a portrait of a brilliant young woman growing up between cultures, and a love letter to girlhood, family, and the great dreams we hold for ourselves, no matter where we're from.

Review Quotes

One of CULTURED's 2026 Young Writers
Debutiful, Best Book of the Month

"About mothers, daughters and the unstoppable power of language." --Los Angeles Times

"A moving exploration of family, ambition, cultural inheritance, and the search for a place to call home. . . Each line sings, each page transports you." --Debutiful, Best Books of June

"Poignant, sincere, and thought-provoking." --Booklist

"With coming-of-age comes insight. . . An intense first novel puts the burden of upbringing under a piercing scrutiny." --Kirkus

"Evocative" --Publishers Weekly

"Timeless, taut, and daringly tempestuous . . . A masterful and unforgettable debut." --Paul Beatty, author of the Booker Prize-winning The Sellout

"Elegant and deeply felt, this is a novel full of poise, precision and luminous prose. An assured debut." --Charles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown

"A book I have been waiting for all my life. Cay Kim has written a daring, sonic, incandescent debut, full of verve and heartache. A story about the pain and love between daughters and mothers, the deep gulf between desire and duty, and the particular experience of straddling both Korean and American homelands, this is a magnificent debut." --Crystal Hana Kim, author of The Stone Home and If You Leave Me

"Intense, lyrical, heartfelt . . . Written with gorgeous attention to detail and a sense of wonder. A beauty." --Yoon Choi, winner of the Whiting Award and author of Skinship

"A lyrically profound and triumphant coming-of-age novel." --Nancy Jooyoun Kim, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Story of Mina Lee, a Reese's Book Club Pick

"A masterpiece of concision and nuance, a searing picture of what it is to grow up between cultures." --Joshua Furst, author of Revolutionaries

About the Author

Cay Kim was born in Seoul in 1998. She received her BA from Stanford University, where she won the Urmy/Hardy Poetry Prize, and her MFA from Columbia University. Her short fiction has appeared in Granta and One Story. This is her first novel.