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R. O. Kwon

Biography

R. O. Kwon

R. O. Kwon is the author of EXHIBIT and the nationally bestselling novel THE INCENDIARIES, which was named a best book of the year by more than forty publications and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award. With Garth Greenwell, Kwon coedited the bestselling KINK, a New York Times Notable Book. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and elsewhere. She has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Yaddo and MacDowell. Born in Seoul, Kwon has lived most of her life in the United States.

R. O. Kwon

Books by R. O. Kwon

Exhibit
by R. O. Kwon - Fiction, Women's Fiction

At a lavish party, Jin Han meets Lidija Jung. A brilliant young photographer, Jin is at a crossroads in her work, in her marriage to her college love, and in who she is and who she wants to be. Lidija is an alluring, injured world-class ballerina on hiatus from her ballet company under mysterious circumstances. Drawn to each other by their intense artistic drives, the two women talk all night. Jin finds herself telling Lidija about an old familial curse, breaking a lifelong promise. She's been told that if she doesn’t keep the curse a secret, she risks losing everything; death and ruin could lie ahead. As Jin and Lidija become more entangled, they realize they share more than the ferocity of their ambition, and they begin to explore hidden desires. Something is ignited in Jin, but can she avoid the specter of the curse?

The Incendiaries
by R. O. Kwon - Fiction

Phoebe Lin and Will Kendall meet in their first month at prestigious Edwards University. Phoebe is a glamorous girl who doesn't tell anyone she blames herself for her mother's recent death. Will is a misfit scholarship boy who transfers to Edwards from Bible college, waiting tables to get by. What he knows for sure is that he loves Phoebe. Grieving and guilt-ridden, Phoebe is drawn into a secretive cult founded by a charismatic former student with an enigmatic past. When the group commits a violent act in the name of faith, Will finds himself struggling to confront a new version of the fanaticism he's worked so hard to escape.