Your Utopia - by Bora Chung (Paperback)

About the Book

"From the acclaimed author and translator of Cursed Bunny, a fresh, uncanny, and utterly profound collection of stories set in near and distant futures that reflect our deepest fears -- and deepest desires. Chung's inimitable blend of horror, absurdity, and dark humor reaches its peak in these tales of loss and discovery, dystopia and idealism, death and immortality. In a thrilling translation by the acclaimed Anton Hur, readers will experience a variety of possible fates for humanity, from total demise via a disease whose only symptom is casual cannibalism to a world in which even dreams can be monitored and used to convict people of crimes."--

Book Synopsis

From the acclaimed author and translator of the National Book Award Finalist, Cursed Bunny, a fresh, uncanny, and utterly profound collection of stories set in near and distant futures that reflect our deepest fears--and deepest desires.

Bora Chung's inimitable blend of horror, absurdity, and dark humor reaches its peak in these tales of loss and discovery, dystopia and idealism, death and immortality. In a thrilling translation by the acclaimed Anton Hur, readers will experience a variety of possible fates for humanity, from total demise via a disease whose only symptom is casual cannibalism to a world in which even dreams can be monitored and used to convict people of crimes.

In "The Center for Immortality Research," a low-level employee runs herself ragged planning a fancy gala for donors only to be blamed for the chaos that ensues during the event in front of the mysterious celebrity benefactors hoping to live forever. In "A Song for Sleep," an AI elevator in an apartment complex develops a tender, one-sided love for an elderly resident. "Seed" traverses the final frontier of capitalism's destruction of the planet--but nature always creeps back to life.

If you haven't yet experienced the fruits of Chung's singular imagination, Your Utopia is waiting.

One of TIME Magazine's 100 Must-Read Books of 2024, and Kirkus Reviews' Best Fiction of 2024

"Chung builds out her stories with imagination, absurdity and a dry sense of humor, all applied with X-Acto knife precision." ―Alexandra Kleeman, The New York Times Book Review

Review Quotes

TIME Magazine Must-Read Book of 2024

Esquire Best Sci-Fi Book of 2024

New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice

Electric Literature Best Short Story Collection of 2024

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by The Millions, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Book Riot, and Marie Claire.

Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Week

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"[An] impressive second collection... Through the prism of her singular imagination, Chung looks sharply at the ways the world we've made doesn't suit us...These are stories to sit with, to read one at a time and savor."--Esquire, Best Sci-Fi Books of 2024 (So Far)

"Inventive tales... offer an absurd look into a distant future... With a touch of melancholy, Chung explores the psychological and sociological effects that advanced technology may have on humankind, while also encouraging readers to imagine, as she writes in her author's note, 'a better world for both you and me.'"--TIME Magazine, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024

"Such a fun collection of short stories infused with speculative tendencies, Slavic literary traditions, and extremely relatable pandemic-era fears."--Jennifer Croft, Los Angeles Daily News

"Fans of Korean author Bora Chung's strangely fantastic and weirdly dystopian--sometimes horrific--tales are in for a treat...Your Utopia will leave readers uncomfortable yet yearning for more. Thought-provoking and bound to take readers through a wild ride of emotions and experiences."--International Examiner

"Your Utopia deftly interrogates what it means to be human."--The Georgetown Voice

"Chung's distinctive imagination remains delightfully compelling... Chung's stories eschew techno-pessimism and suggest that empathy and heart are what is missing from discussions about technology's role in our future."--The Georgetown Voice

"A gut-punch reminder of our own humanity or lack thereof. It urges readers not only to be kinder, but also to be wide-eyed about the technological world around them. This is a book to slip into your friend's hand with a knowing nod and a wordless 'trust me' implied."​--Scientific American

"Chung builds out her stories with imagination, absurdity and a dry sense of humor, all applied with X-Acto knife precision"--New York Times Book Review

"Bora Chung is a writer rich in ideas with an impressive power of controlled narration and tone. Everything is thoughtful and quiet, even amid horrifying details." --The Arts Fuse

"If you are looking for stories that are reminiscent of 'Black Mirror' or that peek into the unknown, surrounding, burgeoning AI and make one generally question what it means to be human, then Your Utopia is for you."--Bookreporter.com

"Uncanny atmospheres and heartfelt human insights strike an unlikely balance... Chung lingers tenderly with the emotional depths of her stories, which arise almost unexpectedly as her characters navigate surreal, speculative, and often mundanely horrifying horizons."--Shelf Awareness

"Chung has crafted another weird and surprising story collection...Central to the collection is an exploration of loneliness and isolation, but Chung is far too complex a writer to simply blame technology for these shortcomings... She plays with our expectations of the future, experiments with the possibilities of what could be, and sprinkles in elements from other genres to keep the stories fresh."--Chicago Review of Books

"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

"Bora Chung has proven once again that she is an undeniable maestro of the uncanny, grotesque, and posthuman. Only a consummate speculative allegorist could write a collection that functions as so haunting a mirror of our modern world, reminding us all the while that the politely deranged cannibals and lovesick AIs and beleaguered alien wives we see reflected in that mirror are really just versions of ourselves."--Rafael Frumkin, author of Confidence and The Comedown

"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.'" *STARRED REVIEW*--Booklist

"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

"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

"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

About the Author

Bora Chung is a writer and translator whose works include the National Book Award finalist and International Booker Prize-shortlisted Cursed Bunny. She has an MA in Russian Studies from Yale University and a PhD in Slavic literature from Indiana University. She has taught Russian language and literature and science fiction at Yonsei University and translates modern literary works from Russian and Polish into Korean.