Your Utopia

Stories

Contributors

By Bora Chung

Translated by Anton Hur

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$18.99

Price

$24.99 CAD

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  1. Trade Paperback $18.99 $24.99 CAD
  2. ebook $11.99 $15.99 CAD
  3. Audiobook Download (Unabridged)

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.

Genre:

  • "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 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
  • “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

On Sale
Jan 30, 2024
Page Count
256 pages
Publisher
Algonquin Books
ISBN-13
9781643756219

Bora Chung

Bora Chung

About the Author

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.
 

Learn more about this author