Baek Sehee, Korean writer, dies at 35, organ donation saves lives

Baek Sehee, the South Korean author whose candid memoirs about living with persistent depression reached an international audience, died on Oct. 17 at the age of 35, her family and officials said. The cause of her death has not been disclosed. The Korea Organ Donation Agency said Baek donated organs including her heart, lungs, liver and kidneys, a gesture that medical officials said helped save five lives; the organs were received at the National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital in Gyeonggi Province, near her birthplace.

Baek rose to prominence with I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, first published in Korea in 2018 and later translated into English and more than two dozen other languages. The book, built around extended conversations between Baek and her psychiatrist, explored her decade-long experience of dysthymia, a persistent, low-grade form of depression. A followup volume continued the same frank dialogue about treatment, daily life and the tensions between private despair and ordinary pleasures. Combined sales of her work exceeded one million copies worldwide, and the first book sold roughly 600,000 copies in South Korea, according to publishing figures.