女ふたり、暮らしています。

by 김하나, キム・ハナ, 황선우

シングルでも結婚でもない、 女2猫4の愉快な生活

単なるルームメイトでも、恋人同士でもない。
一人暮らしに孤独や不安を感じはじめたふたりは、尊敬できて気の合う相手を人生の「パートナー」に選んだ。

小説家チョン・セランも絶賛した韓国で話題の名作エッセイ、ついに日本上陸!

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Feminism, Audiobook, Friendship, Contemporary, Asia

336 pages, Softcover

First published February 22, 2019

Reviews

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

the ideal situation

(thanks to the publisher for the alc)
(review to come)

[enzoreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

hyper beau mémoire sur l’amitié, les attentes de la société et la colocation

[Lavelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

a realistic and inspiring look at what life/companionship/etc can look like outside of typical marriage/romantic conventions. I want to be these women and I absolutely loved this book

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in South Korea in 2019, this book challenges the traditional family structure. It looks at life in modern Korea, focusing on the high cost of housing and the pressure to marry.

Neither Hana nor Sunwoo wanted a husband, partly because marriage there is ruled by patriarchal traditions and obligations to in-laws. In a series of short essays, they write about becoming friends and buying a home together in Seoul. They describe their love of drinking and going out for hangover soup, but they are also honest about the friction of living together, especially when a neat freak and a messy person share a space with four cats. I liked how Hana and Sunwoo found a solution to modern Korean life on their own terms.

In the final essays, they have paid off their mortgage and have a successful podcast called Two Women Talking Together.

[Madhukari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books that inspire, entertain, and help us envision new ways of perceiving the world and living in it.

[CatReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo are two South Korean female friends who, in their early 40s, chose for financial and companionship reasons to consolidate their households and begin cohabitating long-term in a large apartment they bought together, with the intent of this arrangement lasting indefinitely. I listened to the audiobook narration of the 2026 English translation of their co-written book Two Women Living Together, first published in South Korea in 2019.

The book consists of a series of essays written separately that discuss why they chose and designed this living arrangement, how they've navigated conflicts and challenging situations, and their future plans. The essays vary from humorous to poignant to mundane, similar to how other cohabitants would probably describe the experience of moving in together and attempting to merge lives.

I did find this concept and situation quite interesting, being mindful that there are sociocultural issues at play that I don't fully understand as an American. For instance, Kim and Hwang talk about the lack of legal recognition of their 'chosen family'-type arrangement in South Korea, where in many social scenarios they have supported each other in a similar fashion as one might support an immediate family member or significant other. Though Kim and Hwang don't identify as gay and don't characterize their relationship as anything other than platonic friendship in the book, from a practical and pragmatic standpoint a lot of those legal protections could be conferred via a civil union, except that as of 2026 same-sex civil unions are still not recognized in South Korea.

Further reading:
Bad Friend: How Women Revolutionized Modern Friendship by Tiffany Watt Smith - if I recall correctly, Hwang and Kim may have been discussed here as well
Single at Heart: The Power, Freedom, and Heart-Filling Joy of Single Life by Bella DiPaolo

My statistics:
Book 27 for 2026
Book 2333 cumulatively

[Allana · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded firmly up

"A person shouldn't pride themselves on the number of square feet in their house or the brand of car they drive, but on their friends. Not on how accomplished or how powerful their friends are. But how well they can cook, how well they can eat, how soundly they sleep, how well they sing, how honest they can be, how many drinks you've had together, and how many silly memories - those are the things you can truly be proud of."

Not quite the Korean Golden Girls I was looking for, but pretty close.
I loved reading about this friendship.

[jenny✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

there's something so special about a book that makes you feel seen and affirmed ("we have been in your shoes and we understand") while also showing new ways to be ("here is one path forward; we lived it, and you can too"). this is a book that did both for me, and i see my future in it <3

[Kamila Kunda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book I badly needed to read, without even realising it. “Two Women Living Together” by Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo is the memoir about the beauty, joys, struggles, dreams and pain of two female friends in their late 40s, who over eight years ago decided to get a mortgage (which they paid off in two years) and buy an apartment together in Seoul, and who became W2C4: two women and four cats.

“Sunwoo’s boss said this about married life: living together with someone is communal living. The best partner isn’t someone whose lifestyle matches yours, but someone who is willing to put in the effort to create a lifestyle with you. With the latter, any conflict can be resolved.”

Hana and Sunwoo, in alternating chapters, talk about the life they built, even though it hasn’t been easy. Both women have different personalities, different habits, some different hobbies, fears and reactions to events. And yet, with a lot of effort and enormous respect they created a home of which they write: “What a warm and friendly place we live in.” And this extends to the apartment building, in which some of their friends also live, and the neighbourhood. There are neighbours and friends with whom they play table tennis, celebrate successes in neighbourhood cosy cafés, who they can rely on when it comes to looking after their cats when they travel.

I was moved to tears many times reading about these amazing and strong women overcoming big and small challenges and dealing with negative emotions, learning new things, discovering new activities and new qualities of their cohabitant. There is so much passion and joy of living a simple life on the pages of this book that I thought my heart would burst. I don’t think I had ever read about a friendship between women more beautiful than this one and a book that would be more life-affirming than “Two Women Living Together”.

“A happy life isn’t achieved by preparing for and avoiding pain, loss an agony. Without those, perhaps life wouldn’t be life at all”.

This is such a wise book that reached me to support me in the time of my life when I need it most. Thank you @kimtolkong and @bestrongnow for giving me inspiration and strength 🙏🏻

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason, I tend to enjoy listening to non-fiction audio books more than fiction. I also enjoy learning about how people in others cultures and countries live, so this autobiography of two Korean women who decided to not follow the traditional marriage and children route caught my interest.

From what I have read in manhwa and from this book, I have gotten the impression that those who live in Korea enjoy eating meat, drinking alcohol, reading and either having a cat or a dog. They seem to know how to have a good time, lol. (Warning, they had four cats in this beginning of this, but not at the end. Normal, every day life, nothing violent or drastic, but sad.)

Also, while both women in this friendship and living arrangement have very differing personalities, they seem to get along quite well. The one who put up with the almost hoarder is a SAINT in my book. I wouldn't be able to live like that, so major props to her.

I also stand by what they stated about how hard it is to live alone and having to do ALL of the chores by ones' self. Having a partner in crime to help with the cooking, cleaning, etc., is HUGE. Yes, living alone is nice, if I do the dishes, five minutes later there isn't a sink (or countertop) full of more to be done unless I am the one who used them. However, there also isn't someone to help do the dishes when I come home from a long day at work and just want to collapse, but I can't because I have dishes to do....

This was a nice little peek into the life of two women, both different, but who made their life together work. Good for them!

The narrator did a good job with this. I don't recall having to farf about with the volume a lot, though I know I did have to do it on occasion.

4, solid worth your time if you enjoy autobiographies of regular everyday people, stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Harper Audio Adult/Ecco for an ALC of this book to listen to and review.

[Jody Masch · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I picked up this book, I understood the premise & I was intrigued. A middle-aged woman wants to own property, but she’s single, & feels she can’t afford to own the kind of apartment she’d like by herself. So she befriends someone, convinces her that they should purchase an apartment together, & then they do. The remainder of the book is mostly about how they choose to decorate & divvy up responsibilities in the apartment, as well as little hurdles they go through along the way. How they mesh with each others’ families, though they’re only cohabitants, not romantic partners.

Somewhere along the way, this book loses its magic. There’s nothing really novel about the cohabitation. Maybe in the joint property ownership, but having roommates is nothing new in today’s world. The end seemed to get lost in highlighting their many side gigs in podcasting & writing other nonfiction. It seems that these 2 women really did strike it rich talking about their joint property ownership in South Korea. They’re also interested in changing legislation so that they can legally support one another though they are not married.

It got a bit dull, This book is quite short, yet about halfway through I was dying to just make it to the end already. I do wonder if this book might have gotten lost in translation.

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable, unique memoir by two South Korean women about their choice to platonically cohabitate More practical (and cat focused!) than philosophical, but still a good time.

[ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

“In a world where nothing is absolutely good or bad, we want to focus our finite energy on talking about, remembering, and documenting the good things that deserve more attention.”

[Tala&#x1f988; (mrs.skywalker.reads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love you

[Ivy · Rating 4 out of 5]

natalie natalie natalie, we should probably live together forever

[Sam Cheng · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps more accurately, “Two Women Take Out a Mortgage to Buy Their House.” Hana and Sunwoo first connect online, and becoming close friends, they decide to purchase a house in Seoul together, bringing their similarities, differences, and two cats per human (Haku, Tigger, Goro, and Youngbae). In their shared memoir, the two women take turns covering topics such as their jobs, cooking preferences, nuclear family, cleaning habits, work out rhythms, and views on marriage and familial duty. Told without linear progression, their essays on cohabitation provide anecdotes and outline tips for happier living arrangements, push against traditional configurations on one’s home, and point out their experiences on how the world treats unmarried women. Their cheerful tone exemplifies a way for single income households to diversify family structures, showcasing the benefits (and work) of cohabitation. I hoped the book would address my questions about dividing the property should Hana and Sunwoo decide to do so in the future.

Two Women Living Together immediately reminded me of the common practice, at least in my experience, of creating a home with your homies, viably extending the uni-is-one-big-sleepover phase into adulthood proper. The difference would be co-owning a house with a bestie in one’s 40s as opposed to sharing a lease (and not in one’s 40s). It stressed me out that the two women live differently—experience has led me to cohabitate with people I enjoy who live similarly. Hana and Sunwoo’s growth in their friendship made the read more intriguing.

I rate Two Women Living Together 3.5 stars.

My thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for an ARC.

[Leigh Kramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir of sorts about two friends, Hana and Sunwoo, who decide to buy an apartment together in Seoul. This was first published in South Korea after they've only lived together for two years, eight years as of this English edition which includes a few chapters with updates. While I think this would have been a better book had they lived together longer before writing it, I'm always interested in the stories of single women and all the more so if there's an unconventional living situation.

Sunwoo and Hana became internet friends in 2010 and met in person in 2016 and they bought their home by the end of that same year. They're both in their 40s and wanted the safety and stability of home ownership but needed to combine their finances in order to achieve that. I was shocked that they hadn't known each other longer (at least in real life) or at least tried being roommates before deciding to buy a home. That's a big leap and it could have gone badly! They don't even have a plan in place for breaking the arrangement if things go sour. Fingers crossed for them they don't regret that.

They refer to each other as cohabitant instead of roommate, which I found noteworthy. There are chapters about how they combined their households and how their four cats get along. There's a lot about Sunwoo as a hoarder and chaos agent. The chapters could be quite all over the place, perhaps better suited as an article than a book and dryer than I was hoping. However, I really enjoyed when they zoomed out for larger cultural implications, like exploring sexism toward daughters-in-law in South Korea or what legal protections they'd like to have as cohabitants.

Translated from the Korean by Gene Png.


Content notes: insomnia, sexism, fatphobia, surgery/hospitalization, lacerations, COVID-19, flu vaccination, death of parent (mention), death of pet cat, kidney stones (cat), chronic kidney disease (cat), hoarding, mortgage debt, alcohol, inebriation, gender essentialist language, hyperbolic language around addiction, Harry Potter references

[Jozi Dever · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was cute but slightly different than I expected. It dove a little more into their personal life stories and I thought it would mostly discuss the perspectives and emotions regarding their unique living dynamic. However, they did reflect on it some and it was nice to hear some perspectives that align with thoughts I’ve had as someone who lives alone in my mid-twenties. I liked how real they were about challenges yet are such positive and optimistic people. I feel like it allowed me to reflect on myself, my habits, and partnership overall. 3.5⭐️

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
If I had my life to do over and I wasn't happily married, I'd consider the lifestyle of these two women. They're breaking the mold on cultural and societal norms and it's refreshing to read.
I can't imagine the courage it takes to go into a situation like these two have but I'm so happy it's working out for them. Their alternating stories are funny.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really excited about this book to hear about a different living dynamic that more and more women are likely to encounter as more women choose to stay single.

It started ok-ish. But it never became what I was wanting. Each chapter just felt like a separate blog post or podcast that didn’t really link to the next chapter. It was like individual scattered thoughts or observations. It became uninteresting and difficult to finish unfortunately.

[Marci Peace · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the early part of this book and the model of cohabitation that will increase as the younger generations face increased housing costs and fewer prospects from the pool of younger bro-verse men. The second half of the book was a slog of mundane household activities. This could have easily been a long form article.

[Marj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing revolutionary here, and the writing is fairly ordinary. But I’ll always root for women who refuse to live up to expectations and still live their best lives—with their cats.

[LucyInTheSky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect book at the perfect time.

I recognised so many of the challenges Hana and Sunwoo face living together in my romantic relationship, while it also reminded me there are different ways to live, that friends are the best thing ever, laughter and sharing (good fortune, the hard things, good food…) and the right support at the right time, are the most important things.

I’m really impressed that these women figured out a way to live together, embracing their differences, even though it takes serious fights.

While reading this book I’ve had many serious conversations with my romantic partner, and sadly we came to the conclusion that we can’t make it work together. I can’t be more impressed with Hana and Sunwoo that they were able to figure it out. Even though I’m sad that my own relationship is coming to an end, this book gives me hope. Before, I’ve been by myself for years and years, living alone and being perfectly happy like Sunwoo and Hana were while they were living alone. It’s okay to go back to that. Also, it doesn’t have to be alone anymore - there are so many ways to live, and I’m once again reminded that I have amazing friends that I love to stay close to.

There are more takeaways from this book, but I think for now this review captures the mood ;)

[XiLin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two women and four cats :)

“In Korean, the phrase ‘cutting water with a knife’ is used to describe the brevity and impermanence of marital fights. I suppose the same words can be used for squabbles between friends…this constant battle is healthier than fragile peace.”

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful glimpse into a found family and women embracing what they love and not the roles society expects them to fill.

Such an important book especially with the 4B movement in Korea rising in popularity.

Be aware though that their is talk of pet death at the end and yes I ugly cried.

[Lexi]

This book found me when I was wandering around the bookstore sad about how my future is going to look so different than everyone else’s. I think it’s a little hurt by the translation but it was just so endearing and reassuring. I’m very grateful books like this are being written and published. I wish I could listen to their podcast.

[Davina Bisaria · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book about the courage to live the life u want to live! Would recommend this book to so many of my girlfriends about the many ways our futures can play out. Also a good book to read for people w roommates

[poutre · Rating 4 out of 5]

c’était super j’adore vivre en coloc j’ai BESOIN viscéralement d’habiter dans le meme quartier que mes ami•e•s toute ma vie j’ai besoin de cette vie je veux que plus jamais être seule.

Elles sont grave interessantes le bouquin fait l’effet d’un énorme câlin et se focus vraiment sur l’amitié et la vie a plusieurs sans meme questionner les relations amoureuses parce que c’est pas la question ici non vrm je recommande !!!!!

+ super feel good sauf un chapitre quasi à la fin mais oh well

[marcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful essay collection written by two women living together as roommates. I went in with no expectations and was blown away by how much I enjoyed it. Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo dive into how their nontraditional family came to be, as well as the joys and pains of living together when you both like doing things very differently. They're adamant that it's not always sunshine and rainbows, that it takes a lot of compromises, yet it's well worth the trouble as this current arrangement is far more fulfilling than living on their own. I'm a big fan of reading about women going against the grain and pursuing what's right for them instead and this is no exception. Each essay is short and takes no time to read at all. While I was reading this collection, I was looking forward to picking it up every night. One of my favorite books read this year.

[Steph | bookedinsaigon]

Audiobook DNFed @ 7%. After a few chapters, I could discern no difference between the narrative voices of the two women.