Choi Jin-young is one of South Korea's best-known authors. Her career started in 2006 when she won the Silcheon Literature Debut Author Award. She has since won many more, including the Shin Dong-yup Literary Prize, Manhae Literary Prize and, most recently, the Yi Sang Literary Award.

Hunger (originally titled Proof of Gu) charted for over half a year, breaking records for literary fiction in Korea.