Tomato Garden

A crime psychological thriller set in a communal housing complex in the near future, where aging and urban sprawl are accelerating.
Dorae-dong, a residential area on the northernmost outskirts of Seoul. With the aging population and population decline, abandoned homes have become increasingly abandoned, accelerating the urban slums. The government has been implementing a remodeling project to purchase vacant homes and build community housing. For Jisoo, a single mother who was looking for a place to live with her daughter after a divorce and struggling financially, An-eum Housing was the perfect place because she could live there for less than the market price. She was surprised that the previous tenants, a mother and daughter, had moved out after less than a year, but Jisoo, who was also a resident and the actual owner of the house, made an irresistible offer: to take care of the children of the residents, so after much thought, she decided to move in. Jisoo gradually becomes accustomed to the residents and their rules of living in An-eum Housing. However, she finds Eunsoo's subtle insistence on following her orders, such as insisting on meals together in the communal living room, somewhat jarring. Then, one day, a skeletal remains are discovered in the yard of an empty house near the housing. The suspect, revealed to be the man who lived in the room next to Jisoo's, shocks all the residents.
This is a psychological thriller that illuminates the multifaceted nature of a character who reigns as a psychological ruler in a confined space, and a crime mystery that unfolds through the intertwining desires and struggles of various characters. It is the first full-length novel by author Han So-eun, who participated in the crime short story anthology 『In Gotjawal』.