3.5
Your Utopia
ByPublisher Description
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
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
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesYour Utopia Reviews
3.5
“Some absolutely beautiful short stories! The End of the Voyage and A Song for Sleep being my two favorites.”
“Out of the stories in this collection, there was only one that I disliked, mostly because I felt that it was too heavy handed with its themes. The world-builing in each story was incredibly immersive, and Bora Chung was really able to tug at my heartstrings with quite a few of these stories.
Per usual when I read short story collections, I read each story in the order of which title appealed to me the most, followed by the titular story. After finishing the collection, I normally name my favourite. In this case, I had two favourites: "The End of the Voyage" and "Maria, Gratia Plena." I would highly recommend both, and would love to hear other people's thoughts on them :)”
About Bora Chung
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.
Other books by Bora Chung
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