Discover the Penguin books that shaped us

Mrs Shim is a Killer

byKang Jiyoung, Paige Morris (Translator)
Brought to you by Penguin.

DISCOVER YOUR NEXT READ, FOR FANS OF BUTTER AND YELLOWFACE - the Korean cult bestselling portrait of a housewife turned serial killer. Translated by Paige Morris

A gripping tale of love, food and one woman's unconventional quest to support her family.


Widowed. Unemployed. Aged fifty-one.
Mrs. Shim becomes a killer.

In this savage and side-splitting literary thriller, an ordinary woman dives headfirst into a world of petty criminals, crooked cops, and accidental assassins. Around her orbit a washed-up fixer blackmailed by his boss’s daughter, a policeman’s wife undercover at a third-rate detective agency, a ghost marriage-broker with an attraction to hairdressers, and a son who unknowingly becomes her rival.

What starts as survival turns into vengeance. For Mrs. Shim is done with being everyone’s doormat.

Gritty, absurd, and darkly hilarious, MRS SHIM is a kaleidoscopic tale of love, loathing and self-reinvention. Its world of misfits, dead bodies and good food marks the exuberant arrival of a major new international literary voice.

© Kang Jiyoung 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

About Kang Jiyoung

Kang Ji Young is an established Korean writer based in Paju, near Seoul. She is the author of the story collections Goodbye Paradise, Time for Dogs to Eat and The Killer’s Shopping List. Her novels include Quarantine Station of New Culture, Elza’s Ha-yin, Circus in the Dark Forest, Frankenstein Family, Yawning is Delicious, Pheromone Boutique and Shopping Mall for Killers. Shopping Mall for Killers was adapted for television by Disney+. Mrs Shim Is a Killer will be published in over twenty languages worldwide.
Details
All editions