Baek Se-hee, the South Korean author best known for her memoir I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, has passed away at 35.
The Korea Organ and Tissue Donation Agency announced her death news on Friday, October 17, sharing that the author, whom they referred to as "a star in the sky", saved five lives through donating her lungs, heart, liver and both kidneys at the National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital.
Her 2018 best-selling book, a compilation of conversations with her psychiatrist about her mental health struggles, became a cultural phenomenon for readers all over the globe.
Originally written in Korean, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki found international fame after its English translation was published in 2022.
The cause of her death remained under wraps.
Born in 1990, Baek Se-hee took creative writing in university and worked for five years at a publishing house.
For a decade she received treatment for dysthymia, a mild but long-lasting type of depression, which formed the basis of her bestseller, said her Bloomsbury bio.
A sequel, I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki, was published in Korean in 2019. Its English translation was published in 2024.
Baek's younger sister, Baek Da-hee, said in a statement, "Knowing her kind heart that loved so much and could not hate anyone, I hope she can now rest peacefully in heaven. I love you so much."
