IN THE SPRING OF 2018, DAVID YOON
was called for jury duty. It was good
timing: The day before, Yoon had sent
the manuscript for his debut novel,
Frankly in Love, to publishers. His
agent told him to expect responses
in “a week or two.” Would he get
a few offers? One? None? He didn’t
know. Fulfilling his civic duty was
the perfect distraction for what could
be a long wait. Yoon reported to the
Los Angeles courthouse, his phone
tucked away. But the notifications
kept buzzing. He pretended to take
a bathroom break. What came next,
Yoon says, “was one of the most
exciting moments in my entire life.”
A Korean-American rom-com,
Frankly emerged as last year’s hot-
test YA manuscript, launching an
auction where updates came by the
minute. (Yoon surreptitiously
darted away from the jury room
when he could.) Over just a few
hours, the book was the center of an
intense bidding war among 10 pub-
lishing houses, and was bought by
Penguin Young Readers as part of a
two-book deal with Yoon. Then,
a few months later, Alloy Entertain-
ment and Paramount Players (What
Men Want) acquired movie rights—
a year before publication.
It’s all been a bit surreal for Yoon,
now 47, given the novel’s deeply
personal roots. On a humid July
afternoon in Echo Park, Calif., the
author is in a studio for his first
magazine photo shoot; he’s only a
few miles from where he grew up
with his older brother and parents,
DAVID YOON sparked a frenzied book auction and nabbed
a movie deal for his first novel, Frankly in Love (out Sept. 10),
which weaves juicy rom-com tension into a personal,
nuanced Korean-American family tale. With echoes of John
Green and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, it’s poised
to be the biggest YA debut of the year. BY DAVID CANFIELD
YA’ s
Su pe
106 SEPTEMBER 2019 EW ● COM PHOTOGRAPH BY CORINA MARIE HOWELL
