The Future Perfect Hardcover by Cay Kim

Product Details

• Publisher: Riverhead Books (2026-06-23)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 224 pages
• ISBN-13: 9780593734445
• Item Weight: 311.85 grams
• Dimensions: 21.67 x 14.53 x 2.08 cm

“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.

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.