'One Last Word' finds the comedy in what happens when you tell someone how you really feel

Under the Radar Podcast

Author Suzanne Park's new rom-com, “One Last Word,” is a novel centered around a Korean tech entrepreneur — and what happens when her new app accidentally sends intimate messages to all the important people in her life.

“Her goal is just to get from point A to point B. I've been conditioned to work hard and get good grades and work hard at work, and I'll get promoted, and my life will go in this trajectory that's predictable,” said Park. “And then when all of this falls apart and, crumbles around her, she sees that what she had thought in her life, as her life plan, isn't actually turning out the way she thought it was.”

The fictional main character Sarah Chae is jobless, estranged from her best friend, and still carrying a torch for a high school buddy who has no idea how she feels. She puts her life on hold to create a new app about death — but then it all blows up.

Park said her main character's story is not just figuring out her career and romantic life.

“She also has to figure out, is her life outlook even aligned to where it should be? Because she had believed all these things before and now she's seeing that what she had believed is actually not necessarily true,” said Park.

The new romantic comedy serves up a life-altering pivot for Sarah that leads to an even sweeter happy ending.

“One Last Word” is Park's latest novel and the May selection for “Bookmarked: The Under the Radar Book Club.” Listen to the full interview above.

GUEST

Suzanne Park, author of four romance novels, including her latest, ”One Last Word”