Plato would approve of this cure for loneliness

South Korea has been described as ground zero for the gender wars, with online misogyny, gender inequality and political polarisation between the sexes rife and the lowest birth rate in the world. Meanwhile, the number of single households is approaching half the population. Little wonder then that Two Women Living Together, a series of essays co-written by copywriter and podcaster Kim Hana, and magazine editor Hwang Sunwoo, about their life as female best friends living together in Seoul was a publishing sensation in the country. So successful was it that it spawned a podcast and earned the duo enough cash to pay off their shared mortgage.

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After years of living alone and seemingly single in perpetuity, Hana and Sunwoo were both lonely and hankering after a more spacious home than either could afford as precarious single renters, something that no doubt will resonate with London readers. The pair clubbed together and got a mortgage on a flat, merging furniture, lifestyles, finances and cats (they ended up with four between them).

The book's tone is breezy, joky (not the same as funny) and surprisingly dorky. Both women brag about their alcohol consumption like a couple of undergraduates. Also grating are the quirky nicknames given to just about anybody they encounter, while any hangout with friends in the pub, park or ping pong table becomes a social club with a wacky title. Even noodling about at home, Sunwoo on the recorder, Hana on the ukelele (don't get me started), gets dubbed the “Seoul Cyber Music University” following an Instagram Live performance.