The Last Tiger

"Sit tight and sink into this spellbinding debut. It brings the very best of fantasy." —Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Inspired by true stories from the authors’ grandparents’ lives during one of the darkest periods in Korean history, The Last Tiger is a debut young adult fantasy novel about the power of love to give voice to a silenced people.

The gorgeous first edition hardcover features: a metallic foil cover, illustrated endpapers, custom designed edges, and stunning foil stamped case.

In a colonized land where tigers are being hunted to extinction and ancient magic stirs, two star-crossed teens—Lee Seung, a servant yearning for freedom, and Choi Eunji, a noble girl defying tradition—join forces to try and reshape their respective fates.

But their relationship evolves from begrudging accomplices to bitter adversaries as they soon find themselves on opposite sides of a battle over the last tiger, a symbol of their people’s lost freedom and key to the liberation of their country. As the ties between Seung and Eunji are complicated by their conflicting loyalties, tensions rise—especially when a charming princeling of the empire begins to rival for Eunji's affection.

In this friends-to-enemies-to-lovers story of forbidden romance, antagonists turned allies, oppression and liberation, neither Seung nor Eunji can abandon their mission—or each other. And as they embark on separate quests to find the elusive creature, each must also find the power within themselves to make their own destiny.

Julia Riew is a writer, librettist, and composer-lyricist best known for Shimcheong: A Folktale which is currently in development for the stage with Tony Award–winning director Diane Paulus and GLAAD Award–winning playwright Diana Son. In addition to the recipient of the 2022 Fred Ebb Award for Musical Theater Songwriting, Julia has been Playbill’s Featured Songwriter of the Month, a Woman to Watch on Broadway, a Princess Grace Award Honoraria recipient, the inaugural Harvardwood Artist Launch Fellowship winner, and the inaugural Musicians United for Social Equity (MUSE) Linda Twine Scholarship winner. Julia graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard in 2022 with a BA in theater and music. IG: @JuliaRiew (62K+) TikTok: @JuliaRiew (137K+). More here: JuliaRiew.com

Brad Riew is an MFA candidate in Fiction at New York University's creative writing program. He graduated from Harvard College in 2018 with a degree in Psychology, where he won the Ecker Short Story Prize. The Last Tiger, co-written with his younger sister Julia Riew, is his first novel. Brad lives in Brooklyn, New York.