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South Korean author Baek Se-hee, whose memoir I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki became a global touchstone for conversations about depression and therapy, has died at the age of 35.
According to reports, Baek passed away on October 16 in a hospital in Goyang, northwest of Seoul. While the cause of death has not been officially disclosed, local media said she was declared brain-dead before her passing. In a final act of generosity, Baek donated her heart, lungs, liver and both kidneys, reportedly saving five lives. The Korea Organ and Tissue Donation Agency (KODA) expressed gratitude to the late author and her family for their decision, calling it “a beautiful act of love that will continue her legacy of empathy and hope.”
Baek’s younger sister, Baek Da-hee, paid tribute in a public message: “My sister, whom I loved most, wanted to share her heart with others through her writing. Knowing her gentle nature, incapable of hatred, I hope she can now rest peacefully.”
First published in 2018, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki — framed around Baek’s conversations with her psychiatrist — captured the contradiction between wanting to die and finding small reasons to live. Its frankness and vulnerability resonated widely in South Korea, where mental health remains a taboo subject, and later gained an international following through translations.
The memoir sold hundreds of thousands of copies and was followed by a sequel, I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki, which deepened her reflections on chronic depression, self-doubt, and the slow process of healing.