january
Sapphire Lake
Sunshine Mountain
New City Field
Ariadne's Garden
Free House
december

Author's Note

This book is a prophetic book!

How will we support the rapidly growing elderly population, and who will care for them? How will immigrants, filling the job gaps caused by population decline and aging, transform Korean society? What will the future hold for young people, who will become a minority voter, lose their political voice, and be forced to compete with artificial intelligence?

The future that researchers like me envision is a hazy world built like a skeleton with dry statistical blocks.
Readers of this book will have the wondrous experience of having their literary imagination filled with the colors of that world and the people who live within it.


The future in the novel contains a virtual reality that has not yet been realized, but it is surprisingly neither unfamiliar nor awkward.
Because if the changes in our society that are currently underway continue, this is the world our children will likely live in.


A true prophet is not one who foresees the future, but one who sees and criticizes the present.
He is a man who truly hopes that his voice calling for destruction will be heard, that the present will change, and that his predictions about the future will be proven wrong.
In that sense, this novel comes to me as a prophecy.

- From the 'Recommendation' by Lee Cheol-hee (Professor of Economics, Seoul National University / Director of the Population Cluster, Institute for National Future Strategy, Seoul National University)

Always an anxious name, young man

"The Land of Youth" depicts the diverse aspects of a future Korea where an aging population has become a reality, with the vast majority of elderly people and the minority group of young people.
Overflowing with wealth, entrepreneurs and celebrities from around the world spend their dreamy later years on Sycamore Island in the South Pacific, a place created by the mysterious Camilla Redner, where they receive special treatment from young people.
In Korea, most elderly people enter residential facilities operated by the private foundation Yukasiel, a government-designated company.
Yukasiel is operated by grading units from A to F, and you must have the appropriate financial ability to enter each unit.
In particular, the elderly in Unit F are required to work, and if they do not do so, they will be expelled.
Of course, you can also choose to take care of yourself without going into these nursing homes.

Meanwhile, the lives of the young generation, contrasting with those of the elderly, are also important points to note in this novel.
A country that closely resembles today's anxious youth: Elijah, a second-generation immigrant who works as a nurse at a nursing home for the elderly and actively participates in anti-gerontological rallies; Jaehee, an elite doctor who earns a high salary and practices elective death (a system that allows elderly people with clear identities and sufficient means to legally choose death); and Suhyeon, an illegal elective death broker who came down from the North after the opening of the country.
It is an interesting portrayal of young people moving towards a new future in their own way to survive in a society of, for, and by the elderly.

A name that is always valid across time, family

The word family always leaves me with a feeling of confusion.
Now, the only person in the world I can call family is my mother.
-In the text

In 『The Land of Youth』, not only is the conflict between generations permeating the entire work, but family relationships also appear as an important element.
At twenty-nine, Nara's only family is her awkward mother, but as a child, she had an 'alicorn'-like Aunt Min-a who inspired her to dream of becoming an actress and introduced her to the world.
Aunt Min-a, Nara, and Nara's mother, Eugene, are not related by blood, but they share a bond that is even stronger than that.
However, when her father, her real family, appears, Aunt Min-a, who was a kind of pseudo-family member, disappears.


This novel questions what family is, explores the relationships we have with those we care about, and demonstrates that restoring genuine relationships can be a key to solving the problems facing future society.
In particular, it has great implications for us living in the present day, as it allows us to look into the conflicts and overcoming processes between family members that anyone can experience regardless of time.

Death as a means of revealing class

There is widespread criticism of the elderly who choose to live as long as life allows without scheduling their death in advance.
In common parlance, there are many people who look at the elderly with the thought, 'Why are you still alive? Just die quickly.'
-In the text

This novel is set in a near-future society where aging has reached an extreme, and deals head-on with the sensitive topic of "selective death," currently referred to as euthanasia or death with dignity.
The author suggests that future elective systems, while seemingly designed to guarantee individual autonomy and dignity, are in fact designed for social efficiency and cost savings.
Can institutionalizing human death and granting the power of choice within it truly be considered dignified? Rather than providing an answer, "The Land of Youth" exposes the inconvenient structure in detail, leading readers to enter a space of ethical judgment and reflection.
This allows readers to perceive the choice as not just one of the hypothetical settings of a future society, but as a problem worth thinking about in relation to reality.

Youthful challenges, old age comes to everyone

I admit that I have perceived the elderly as simply 'people in a state of old age'.
But gradually I came to realize.
The fact that they too were once me.
-In the text

The author allows the nation to experience all of Yukasiel's units, which naturally leads to a change in the nation's thoughts on the elderly.
And it's dramatic in that it has the nation's voice directly revealed in the Sycamore Island job interview how and to what extent the nation has awakened.
Thanks to the nation's confession, readers gain clues on how to overcome social problems such as the generational conflict between the elderly and the young, human versus technology, native versus immigrant, and the class conflict arising from capitalism.
Moreover, even if the future is heavily dystopian, it gives us hope that it can lead to different endings depending on our perspective.

The 'country of youth' we should be dreaming of

There was a time when I wanted to erase everything and go there.
But now I know my roots are firmly planted here.
So, wouldn't it be possible to step into the unknown world and branch out?
I don't know if it will be beautiful or ugly, if my choice will be fortunate or if it will leave me with regret.
-In the text

"The Land of Youth" presents a utopia not as a perfect paradise, but as a space for experimenting with its possibilities.
Sycamore Island in the work has structural limitations, but through the process of various generations and classes coming together to create their own order, it makes us reconsider the concept of 'ideal'.
That is, Sycamore Island is certainly imperfect, but within it lies the way humans care for each other, solidarity with others, art, and dreams.
By not presenting the utopia in the work as a complete entity, but rather as a process of moving toward possibility, the author makes us realize that even in imperfection, the individual's will to understand others and to continue making meaningful attempts is important.

Personal records and diaries that testify to the times

Will something new happen this year? (…) Where will I be and what will I be doing that day? Will things be better than they are now?
I hope so.
That's why I'm writing my diary with that hope.
-In the text

"The Land of Youth" is a narrative experiment that interweaves inner confessions and observations of the external world through the format of a "diary."
The device of the diary gives the work a consistent sense of time, while at the same time allowing the reader to directly encounter the country's hidden inner self through raw, unrefined language.
Moreover, the daily life recorded by the nation goes beyond a space for simply expressing personal feelings and develops into a record of a cross-section of the times experienced by a young man.
In other words, the country's difficult reality does not end with feelings of exhaustion or disillusionment, but is transformed into a fervent hope for the world.
The country's diary gradually becomes a kind of testimony.
Accordingly, in order to solve problems such as the instability of labor endured by the younger generation, humans being replaced by machines, and family and generational conflicts, it is emphasized that not only individual awakening but also empathy and solidarity among all those living in the same era are necessary.