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Stories
by Bora Chung
From the internationally acclaimed author of Cursed Bunny, in another thrilling translation from Korean by Anton Hur, this collection shares tales of loss and discovery, idealism and dystopia, death and immortality.
In "The Center for Immortality Research," a low-level employee runs herself ragged planning a fancy gala for donors, only to be blamed for a crime she witnessed during the event, under the noses of the mysterious celebrity benefactors hoping to live forever. But she can't be fired—no one can. In "One More Kiss, Dear," a tender, one-sided love blooms in the AI-elevator of an apartment complex; as in, the elevator develops a profound affection for one of the residents. In "Seeds," we see the final frontier of capitalism's destruction of the planet and the GMO companies who rule the agricultural industry, but nature has ways of creeping back to life.
Chung's writing is "haunting, funny, gross, terrifying—and yet when we reach the end, we just want more" (Alexander Chee). If you haven't yet experienced the fruits of this singular imagination, Your Utopia is waiting.
"Nothing concentrates the mind like Chung's terrors, which will shrivel you to a bouillon cube of your most primal instincts" (Vulture), yet these stories are suffused with Chung's inimitable wry humor and surprisingly tender moments, too.
"Booker Prize–shortlisted Chung (Cursed Bunny) makes a dazzling return with these eight inventive tales...Hur's skillful translation feels authentic to Chung's voice without an ounce of pandering to a potentially unaware Western audience. The author has an impressive ability to balance emotional and psychological depth with a touch of the surreal, creating a collection that resonates long after the final page is turned. A literary force to be reckoned with, Chung makes another splash." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Hur returns as Chung's brilliant Korean-to-English cipher for eight more enigmatically irresistible stories… Chung's electrifying author's note offers provenance for many of her stories and an empathic invitation to progress 'toward a better world for both you and me.'" ―Booklist (starred review)
"Imagining a utopia and mourning when it falls short are the first steps toward creating a better world. A big job for fiction; Chung's up to the task. The imagined worlds here may not be utopian—but the reading experience is." —Kirkus Reviews
"This is another fantastic collection...that combines big topics such as technology, human absurdity, and mortality. And [Chung] does it in the most amazing ways." ―Book Riot
"Unexpected, funny, thrillingly original. These stories will stick with me." ―Ainslie Hogarth, author of the New York Times Best Book of the Year, Motherthing, and Normal Women
"Bora Chung's stories glisten at the border of our weird world, and all our other weird worlds. A truly sublime book." ―Samantha Hunt, bestselling author of The Seas and The Unwritten Book
This information about Your Utopia was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Bora Chung has written three novels and three collections of short stories and translated modern literary works from Russian and Polish into Korean. After living in the US and studying at Yale University and Indiana University, she moved back to her home country of South Korea, where she translates and writes fiction.
Anton Hur was born in Stockholm. He currently resides in Seoul. To learn more, please visit http://antonhur.com. Twitter, Instagram: @AntonHur
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