Your Utopia

by Bora Chung Narrated by Greta Jung

Overview

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.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

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

"Best Books this Week" on Shelf Awareness 

Included in This Week's (3/21/24) Editors' Choice of the "7 New Books We Recommend This Week" by New York Times Book Review——

“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

“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

“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

"[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's Best Sci-Fi Books of 2024 (So Far)

"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 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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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’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

“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

"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

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

“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

JANUARY 2024 - AudioFile

Greta Jung performs these science-fiction stories from National Book Award finalists Bora Chung and translator Anton Hur. In one story, an elevator falls in love with one of the residents in its building. In another story, a robot tries to survive in a postapocalyptic world in which humans are nearly extinct. Jung narrates the audiobook with deep understanding of the characters in every story. She's especially strong in first-person narration; she perfectly embodies each protagonist's point of view--whether they're human or robot. At times, Jung's voice falls into an affectless tone, disconnecting listeners from the stories with third-person perspectives. But overall, she creates an engrossing listening experience that's sure to mesmerize her listeners. K.D.W. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2024-01-05
Science fiction blends with pointed social critique in these short stories from South Korea.

In 2022, Chung’s first collection to appear in English, Cursed Bunny, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. These eight stories pick up where that book left off, using darkly speculative premises—with surprising flashes of wry humor—to explore social ills. Where Chung’s debut skewed toward fairy tale–infused horror, these stories are full of SF staples: spaceships, robots, futuristic technologies. In the opener, “The Center for Immortality Research,” a low-level employee at the eponymous facility has to pull off a “ninety-eighth anniversary celebration.” When things go awry, the worker is hit by the hard truth of their employer’s mission. In “The End of the Voyage,” a Department of Defense linguist on a space mission designed to outrun a cannibalistic virus on Earth discovers she has the world’s worst co-workers. The title story is narrated by a piece of “inorganic intelligence,” a solar-powered “autobody” whose human occupant has perished (along with the rest of his species) in a cataclysmic virus—viruses pop up numerous times in these tales; no surprise, given the book originally appeared in Korea in 2021—and who now faces a series of obstacles for its own survival. In the poignant “Maria, Gratia Plena,” a worker scanning a comatose criminal’s brain for memories discovers, instead of clues to her crimes, a haunting past. In an author’s note, Chung says that “loss and trauma are the only common elements of human life,” which explains the book’s melancholy. But she also notes that the acts of 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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159228017
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	01/30/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

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