Green Frog - by Gina Chung (Paperback)

About the Book

"A short story collection that explores Korean American womanhood, bodies, animals, and transformation as a means of survival ... Equal parts fantastical--a pair of talking dolls help twins escape a stifling home, a heart boils on the stove as part of an elaborate cure for melancholy--and true to life--a mother and daughter try to heal their rift when the daughter falls unexpectedly pregnant, a woman reexamines her father's legacy after his death--the stories in this collection are hopeful and heartbreaking, full of danger and full of joy. Chung is a master at capturing emotion, and her characters--human and otherwise--will claw their way into your heart and make themselves at home"--

Book Synopsis

ONE OF NPR'S 2024 "BOOKS WE LOVE"

From the author of Sea Change comes a short story collection that explores Korean American womanhood, bodies, animals, and transformation as a means of survival.

"The stories hit, each one, and land with such seeming perfection. Chung's book sits next to my all-time favorite story collections by masters of the craft: Karen Russell, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, George Saunders, and Ted Chiang."--Morgan Talty, award-winning author of Night of the Living Rez

Equal parts fantastical--a pair of talking dolls help twins escape a stifling home, a heart boils on the stove as part of an elaborate cure for melancholy, a fox demon contemplates avenging her sister's death--and true to life--a mother and daughter try to heal their rift when the daughter falls unexpectedly pregnant, a woman reexamines her father's legacy after his death--the stories in this collection are hopeful and heartbreaking, full of danger and full of joy.

Chung is a master at capturing emotion, and her characters--human and otherwise--will claw their way into your heart and make themselves at home.

Review Quotes

2025 Asian Pacific American Award for Literature Adult Fiction Honor

"A fantastic medley of short stories that dance between literary fiction, fable, Korean folklore, and science fiction. Wildly entertaining, wonderfully diverse, and always delivered with a superb understanding of pacing and economy of language, the stories in this collection are full of emotional intelligence but also prove Chung isn't afraid to explore what genre mixing can do for short narratives. . . . Chung is a keen observer of the human condition who is unafraid to tackle difficult themes like growing up, abandoning our dreams and settling, grief, being an outsider, and the complexities of multiculturalism and its impact on those who are caught between two cultures and thus never feel like they fully belong to either. However, she's also a talented storyteller who can easily take her deep messages and wrap them in entertaining, emotionally resonant short fiction. The fabulist takes and great writing make Green Frog a great collection, but the way Chung works feminism and otherness, while almost always centering Korean or Korean American woman, is what makes this a must read."
--NPR.org

"Glimmering . . . stories imbued with subtle magic, balancing one foot in and one foot out of the ordinary. . . . This longing--to do something about one's presence, to choose one's own fate--hangs in the air long after the book has been closed. Green Frog glitters and haunts, remaining with you until, slowly, you start to see yourself and your surroundings differently."
--Los Angeles Review of Books

"Sprinkled in folkloric wisdom and speculative darkness, Gina Chung's story collection, Green Frog, humors and haunts with thoughtful precision. The stories within incorporate Korean American women; fox demons; talking dolls; memory-warping AI; and an edible heart to demonstrate not only Chung's imaginative range, but her ability to cut to the quick no matter the medium."
--Elle

"Gina Chung's debut short story collection, Green Frog, bursts with heart and heat. Whether following a vengeance-driven kumiho in "Human Hearts," or a grief-stricken mother in "Attachment Processes," Chung deftly shows us the soft underbelly hiding within us all."
--The Idaho Review

"A collection of achingly real but also sometimes unusual stories about survival, change, nature, and womanhood, with a dash of Korean mythology and culture. . . . Great for people who like Bora Chung, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Yōko Ogawa, Carmen Maria Machado, and so many more."
--Book Riot

"Superb. . . . Standouts are many, effortlessly ranging from fantastical, futuristic, and slice-of-real-life narratives."
--Booklist (starred)

"Chung's dynamic collection (after the novel Sea Change) employs various genres and styles to illuminate her Korean American characters' grief and regret. The evocative and playful opener, "How to Eat Your Own Heart," which will put readers in mind of Lorrie Moore, takes the form of a macabre set of instructions for recovering from heartbreak. . . . Chung shines the most when portraying intense emotions with realism, such as in the beautifully strange closer, "The Love Song of the Mexican Free-tailed Bat," about a woman tenderly caring for her dead scientist father's bats in the way she wishes he'd cared for her. Chung's talents are on full display in these contemplative tales."
--Publishers Weekly

"Beautifully expressed stories. . . . Chung's gift is patiently unraveling ordinary moments in ordinary lives and conveying their significance is translucent prose. Lovely, emotionally resonant stories."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Gina Chung's Green Frog is remarkable. The stories hit, each one, and land with such seeming perfection. Chung's book sits next to my all-time favorite story collections by masters of the craft: Karen Russell, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, George Saunders, and Ted Chiang. This book does not disappoint--it defies gravity in such a way that it takes your breath away, like it lifts you up and up and up past the clouds and into space. There is so much raw power and emotion in these stories that after finishing each one, I felt more and more alive. Green Frog is an unforgettable dream."
--Morgan Talty, award-winning author of Night of the Living Rez

"Gina Chung writes with great heart and daring. Her stories reach for new ways of framing the Korean-American experience, laying claim to all genre or style that serves her purpose. Quite literally spanning the cerebral to the visceral, this is a collection that refuses to acknowledge the limits of immigrant fiction."
--Yoon Choi, author of Skinship

"From praying mantises to toothy cats to shape-shifting kumihos--a menagerie of creatures stalk Gina Chung's stories, bringing their appetites and apprehensions to these spellbinding narratives of love, loss, and belonging. In Green Frog, magic comes in many forms: from outright enchantments to small miracles of grace. Every story in this collection feels heart-thumpingly alive."
--Allegra Hyde, author of The Last Catastrophe

"With Green Frog Gina Chung further announces herself as a bold new voice in American Literature. Pulsating with heart and profound emotional intelligence, these masterful short stories build into a tapestry of wonder. These powerful characters with their voices rendered so elegantly will stay with you long after the last page."
--Kali Fajardo-Anstine, bestselling author of Woman of Light

About the Author

Gina Chung is a Korean American writer from New Jersey currently living in Brooklyn, New York. A recipient of the Pushcart Prize, she is a 2021-2022 Center for Fiction/Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellow and holds an MFA in fiction from The New School. Her work appears or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, Catapult, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, Idaho Review, The Rumpus, Pleiades, F(r)iction, and Wigleaf, among others, and has been recognized by several contests, including the American Short(er) Fiction Contest, the Los Angeles Review Literary Awards, and the Ploughshares Emerging Writer's Contest.