A Love Story from the End of the World - by Juhea Kim (Paperback)

About the Book

"Spanning multiple locales and epochs, and rendered in fine detail and vivid color, this transportive collection shows what it means to live as human inhabitants on our one miraculous planet. Lyrical, at times hilarious, and always heartfelt, each of these ten stories is a reflection of individual choice in the face of man-made apocalypse: in a near-future Seoul, where air pollution has become so fatal that the city has been encased in a translucent biodome, a civil engineer charged with its upkeep contemplates an arranged marriage. A painter, disenchanted with New York City, travels to the South of France and falls into a dalliance with an entrepreneur who claims to have invented a new color. And on an island where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet, upon which other countries have relegated their waste to form a mountain of landfill, a local boy facing daily privation gets internet famous for his K-pop-inspired dances"--

Book Synopsis

Longlisted for The Story Prize

From the acclaimed author of Beasts of a Little Land and City of Night Birds, an exquisite, globetrotting story collection about humans in precarious balance with the natural world

Spanning multiple locales and epochs, and rendered in fine detail and vivid color, this transportive collection shows what it means to live as human inhabitants on our one miraculous planet. Lyrical, at times hilarious, and always heartfelt, each of these ten stories is a reflection of individual choice in the face of man-made apocalypse: in a near-future Seoul, where air pollution has become so fatal that the city has been encased in a translucent biodome, a civil engineer charged with its upkeep contemplates an arranged marriage. A painter, disenchanted with New York City, travels to the South of France and falls into a dalliance with an entrepreneur who claims to have invented a new color. And on an island where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet, upon which other countries have relegated their waste to form a mountain of landfill, a local boy facing daily privation gets internet famous for his K-pop-inspired dances.

With the clear-eyed reverence of Richard Powers and the sparkling sincerity of George Saunders, Juhea Kim's first story collection views our broken world--and broken hearts--from breathtaking heights. A Love Story from the End of the World delivers an impassioned reminder that we are human--but without nature, we are nothing at all.

Review Quotes

"Each one grapples with the precarity of life on our small blue planet...in tandem with emotional precarity of the individuals who populate them. There's playfulness to be had, too...Just lovely." - Marie Claire

"Set in the near future, these finely wrought stories examine lives and relationships amid climate change and technological innovation." - The New Yorker, "Best Books of 2025"

"Resonant...affecting...lyrical...Throughout the collection, fleeting connections offer glimmers of hope...Her fiction offers a powerful reminder of what we stand to lose; that we are part of nature; and 'we have within ourselves everything we need to save humanity'."

- Financial Times

"Impressive range that puts the author's literary versatility on full display...Juhea Kim demonstrates once more that she is the master of using external struggles to guide the reader's gaze inward...Her elegant, compassionate prose gently fans the air, stoking the last embers of our humanity...A deeply pensive reflection that strikes the soul."

- Korea Times

"Juhea Kim's haunting, poetic prose explores climate change in 10 different fantastic, speculative short stories. Propelled by Kim's love for humanity and her deep knowledge of nature and wildlife, the book is imaginative and thought-provoking." - Stefanie Milligan, The Christian Science Monitor

"The spirit of this collection of stories is best described in the words from the book itself -- 'Absolutely brilliant -- somehow your writing makes me feel grief, but also hope'... The work of a master storyteller whose stories will resonate with every reader aware of the contemporary reality." - The Telegraph India

"Kim keeps her focus trained on the human scale, writing about how
people continue to reach for life and one another even as the ground
beneath becomes less stable...The writing is clear and precise, never
overwrought...Kim has spoken about conceiving this short story as an
exhibition, inspired by colors and life-changing art experiences
around the world. Each story, indeed, feels like a distinct work, yet
is enriched by its neighbors." - Arab News

"[A] delicate story collection...excellent...Kim excels at revealing the far-reaching and destabilizing effects of traumatic events on her characters. Readers will savor these nuanced tales." - Publisher's Weekly

"Characters...come to realize that love might be the only thing powerful enough to tether them...Well-drawn and compelling stories that span continents, encouraging the essential acts of saying or doing something to protect what we hold dear." - Library Journal

"Lush and evocative, Juhea Kim's A Love Story from the End of the World is like a precision cut diamond that fractures light into a spectrum of possible futures on this, our wounded planet . . . Despite flights of imagination, Kim's stories ultimately tether us to the earth and demand that we give it our attention. This is an exquisite and essential collection." --Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, author of What We Fed to the Manticore - Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, author of What We Fed to the Manticore

"In A Love Story from the End of the World, Juhea Kim offers both an unsettling glimpse at what climate change might mean for our planet, and a vision of the transcendent moments of beauty and human connection that make it possible to survive in a changing world." - Ash Davidson, author of Damnation Spring