This novel is about the youngest parents and the oldest son talks about youth and love with a dazzling story.

In a village where a tourist complex has been built, a 17-year-old couple happens to have a child despite having no idea of what kinds of adults they will become. This young couple manages to have a family with anxiety and excitement in their minds, and their son Areum grows up receiving love and affection and into a brave and bright boy. But before he becomes a full-grown adult, he is diagnosed with progeria, a disorder that causes a child’s body to age more quickly.

Areum, who has the young heart of a 17-year-old boy but the body of a man older than his parents, loves reading and writing. His only friend is a sixty-year-old man in the neighborhood. Having to endure a time that feels painfully long with pain and death always at his side, Areum naturally learns about life and develops his own thoughts about it. Though it centers on progeria, an unusual disorder, this novel does not portray Areum’s life in a miserable way. Rather, it focuses on capturing the brilliant moments in life and reflecting sincerely on the universal values of life and time.

Aerum decides to write a story about his parent’s relationship, romance, and the event of his birth, and he gives this story to his parents on his 18th birthday. Based on his memories blended with his imagination and exaggeration, Areum has created a novel by himself. This act of writing a novel for a day that he may not be able to celebrate is an effort to bring back his parent’s youth that has been lost and to create something with the language and sensitivity that he has developed in the time he spent at home alone instead of being at school. Areum’s novel also reflects his own wish to make his life become alive in the story.

Kim Aeran

Kim Aeran graduated from the Korea National University of Arts with a degree in Playwriting. Story collections written by Kim Aeran include Run, Abi; My Mouth Waters and The Vapor Trail. Novels created by Kim include My Life Is Exciting. To date, Kim has received various awards including the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award, the Lee Hyosuk Literary Award, Today's Young Artist's Award, the Shin Dongyeop Creative Award, the Kim Yoojeong Literary Award, the Grand Prize from the Young Writer's Award, the Han Moosuk Literary Award, and the Lee Sang Literary Award. Her work Run, Abi, which has been translated into French won the Unnoticed Work Award from literary critics and journalists in France.

Liberaturprei Award, 2018, Nomination

School Library Journal Book Recommendation Council, 2012, Recommended Book