DallerGut author Miye Lee goes from healing fiction to psychological thriller

SINGAPORE – Burnt out from her job as a semiconductor engineer at Samsung Electronics, South Korean author Miye Lee quit her job to write a novel about a magical department store that sells dreams. Her crowdfunded and self-published debut novel went on to sell over a million copies worldwide.

The 35-year-old’s journey to becoming the best-selling author of DallerGut Dream Department Store (2020) itself reads like a blurb for one of those well-loved cosy fiction novels from East Asia that have in recent years been sweeping bookshop window displays globally. But Lee’s follow-up to her breakout debut veers away from the healing variety into the dark psychological territory of petty human behaviour.