Baek Se-hee, the South Korean author behind the viral memoir I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, has passed away at the age of 35.
Her 2018 debut — a candid collection of conversations with her psychiatrist — struck a chord for its raw honesty around depression, self-doubt and the small joys that make life bearable. What started as a quiet personal record became a global phenomenon, with its English translation in 2022 propelling Baek’s words far beyond Korea.
Details around her death remain unclear.
According to the Korean Organ Donation Agency, Baek’s heart, lungs, liver and kidneys have been donated, saving five lives. In a statement, her sister shared that Baek had hoped to “share her heart with others through her work, and to inspire hope” — a wish she fulfilled both in life and after it.
Selling over a million copies and translated into 25 languages, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki helped shift how Korea — and much of the world — talks about mental health.
Its most-quoted line encapsulates Baek’s delicate balance between despair and delight: “The human heart, even when it wants to die, quite often wants at the same time to eat some tteokbokki, too.”
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Born in 1990, Baek studied creative writing before spending five years at a publishing house. She lived with dysthymia, a persistent form of depression that became the foundation of her breakout work.
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Her follow-up, I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki, was released in Korean in 2019 and in English earlier this year — a continuation of her quiet yet powerful exploration of what it means to keep living.
