Your Utopia
 |
Description
Book Introduction
The most compelling voice in contemporary world literature
Information Ra's second novel collection, "Your Utopia"
"Characters who are angry, question, pause, mourn, and then move forward again" by Choi Jin-young (novelist)
“It encourages us to imagine a better world for you and me.” (Time’s 2024 Book of the Year)
Jeong Bo-ra's second collection of short stories, Your Utopia, which was a finalist for the Booker Prize and the National Book Award, was republished by Rabbit Hole in January 2025.
This book, a revised edition of "Meet Her" published in 2021, is ready to meet readers with a new order, new binding, and more refined sentences, featuring "Your Utopia," a work that captures the steady efforts to move from the ruins of today toward a better world.
Since the English version of Your Utopia, translated by Anton Herr, was published in the US, UK, India, and Australia last year, it has been selected as a 'Book of the Year 2024' by the US weekly news magazine 《Time》, and in January 2025, it was published by Philip K.
It was also nominated for the Dickson Award.
Along with the Hugo and Nebula Awards, the Philip K.
The Dickinson Prize is considered one of the world's top three science fiction literary awards.
This is the first time a novel written by a Korean in Korean has been nominated for one of the three major science fiction literary awards.
This book exposes the petty and ridiculous contradictions of the world, while also showing us the creatures who endure this miserable life, care for each other, and learn clumsy love.
It tells the story of the fate of those left behind who, at the moment of losing love like lightning, stop in their tracks, mourn, engrave memories, and move forward again.
“How will I remember this loss if I do not mourn it with action” (p.
As can be seen from the author's words, "362," it is not just about accepting the situation and feeling sad, but it can also be read as a strong will to fight and shout for a better world.
In his recommendation, novelist Jinyoung Choi introduces this book as “a story that will fly as far as a seed can, take root deeply, and spread out in all directions.”
Here is a novel by Jeong Bo-ra that plants a small seed of utopia that will eventually be reclaimed all at once, even though it has been gradually eaten away during times of violence and oppression.
Information Ra's second novel collection, "Your Utopia"
"Characters who are angry, question, pause, mourn, and then move forward again" by Choi Jin-young (novelist)
“It encourages us to imagine a better world for you and me.” (Time’s 2024 Book of the Year)
Jeong Bo-ra's second collection of short stories, Your Utopia, which was a finalist for the Booker Prize and the National Book Award, was republished by Rabbit Hole in January 2025.
This book, a revised edition of "Meet Her" published in 2021, is ready to meet readers with a new order, new binding, and more refined sentences, featuring "Your Utopia," a work that captures the steady efforts to move from the ruins of today toward a better world.
Since the English version of Your Utopia, translated by Anton Herr, was published in the US, UK, India, and Australia last year, it has been selected as a 'Book of the Year 2024' by the US weekly news magazine 《Time》, and in January 2025, it was published by Philip K.
It was also nominated for the Dickson Award.
Along with the Hugo and Nebula Awards, the Philip K.
The Dickinson Prize is considered one of the world's top three science fiction literary awards.
This is the first time a novel written by a Korean in Korean has been nominated for one of the three major science fiction literary awards.
This book exposes the petty and ridiculous contradictions of the world, while also showing us the creatures who endure this miserable life, care for each other, and learn clumsy love.
It tells the story of the fate of those left behind who, at the moment of losing love like lightning, stop in their tracks, mourn, engrave memories, and move forward again.
“How will I remember this loss if I do not mourn it with action” (p.
As can be seen from the author's words, "362," it is not just about accepting the situation and feeling sad, but it can also be read as a strong will to fight and shout for a better world.
In his recommendation, novelist Jinyoung Choi introduces this book as “a story that will fly as far as a seed can, take root deeply, and spread out in all directions.”
Here is a novel by Jeong Bo-ra that plants a small seed of utopia that will eventually be reclaimed all at once, even though it has been gradually eaten away during times of violence and oppression.
- You can preview some of the book's contents.
Preview
index
Immortality Research Institute
Your Utopia
End of the journey
A very ordinary marriage
One More Kiss, Dear
meet her
Maria, Gratia Plena
seeds
Author's Note for the First Edition | Author's Note for the New Edition | Recommendation
Your Utopia
End of the journey
A very ordinary marriage
One More Kiss, Dear
meet her
Maria, Gratia Plena
seeds
Author's Note for the First Edition | Author's Note for the New Edition | Recommendation
Detailed image
Into the book
“I think I’m being stalked.”
It was two months ago, when preparations for the memorial ceremony were in full swing, that my senior sister confessed.
--- p.9 From the “Eternal Life Research Institute”
“Your…… utopia.”
314 whispered again.
"know."
I answered randomly.
--- p.75 From "Your Utopia"
Salvation does not come automatically just because you wait.
--- p.129 From "The End of the Journey"
The cigarette in my hand burns out without me even lighting it.
I quickly put the cigarette to my lips.
Because I came out to the veranda to smoke a cigarette.
Because I told my wife that in the bedroom.
Because the average husband doesn't come out onto the veranda to smoke a cigarette and just hold it in his hand.
Because I'm just an ordinary husband who comes out to the veranda and smokes a cigarette.
--- p.171 From “A Very Ordinary Marriage”
The screen settings are blank, but the speaker settings have only one song saved in the playlist.
Found it.
I found her music.
--- p.210 From "One More Kiss, Dear"
“We will move forward.”
I will also go forward.
If only they would give me back my original cane that the police took away.
The new cane the Ministry of Health gave me kept slipping at the bottom, making it difficult to walk properly.
The press conference, which ended with the fan club president wailing in a wheelchair, garnered 2.36 billion views worldwide in three months, and the number is still rising.
--- p.247 From "Meeting Her"
If God were male, he would never understand the everyday threats women feel.
--- p.320 From 「Maria, Gratia Plena」
“The sun does not rise without your permission.
Even rain doesn't fall without your permission.
Long, long before you started creating corporations, patenting them, and obsessing over profits, nature existed in its own way.
We live that way.”
It was two months ago, when preparations for the memorial ceremony were in full swing, that my senior sister confessed.
--- p.9 From the “Eternal Life Research Institute”
“Your…… utopia.”
314 whispered again.
"know."
I answered randomly.
--- p.75 From "Your Utopia"
Salvation does not come automatically just because you wait.
--- p.129 From "The End of the Journey"
The cigarette in my hand burns out without me even lighting it.
I quickly put the cigarette to my lips.
Because I came out to the veranda to smoke a cigarette.
Because I told my wife that in the bedroom.
Because the average husband doesn't come out onto the veranda to smoke a cigarette and just hold it in his hand.
Because I'm just an ordinary husband who comes out to the veranda and smokes a cigarette.
--- p.171 From “A Very Ordinary Marriage”
The screen settings are blank, but the speaker settings have only one song saved in the playlist.
Found it.
I found her music.
--- p.210 From "One More Kiss, Dear"
“We will move forward.”
I will also go forward.
If only they would give me back my original cane that the police took away.
The new cane the Ministry of Health gave me kept slipping at the bottom, making it difficult to walk properly.
The press conference, which ended with the fan club president wailing in a wheelchair, garnered 2.36 billion views worldwide in three months, and the number is still rising.
--- p.247 From "Meeting Her"
If God were male, he would never understand the everyday threats women feel.
--- p.320 From 「Maria, Gratia Plena」
“The sun does not rise without your permission.
Even rain doesn't fall without your permission.
Long, long before you started creating corporations, patenting them, and obsessing over profits, nature existed in its own way.
We live that way.”
--- p.346 From "Seeds"
Publisher's Review
“Just stand here and wait for her
“I wanted to play just one piece of music forever.”
With sincere wishes for your well-being today and our utopia tomorrow.
Survival tips for those who overcome grief and run out of despair
“Your utopia.”
He whispers sometimes behind my back.
Then I answer.
It's 3 now.
It's 5 now.
It's 2 now.
As the remaining batteries discharge little by little, the Utopia level also decreases.
“But it will get better.” (Your Utopia, p.
52)
If that day really comes, then on that very day the world and humanity will be reborn.
The land and sea will no longer be hurt, and people and nature will grow together in the sunlight, reaching toward the sky.
We are still waiting.
(「Seed」, p.
354)
Following 『Cursed Rabbit』, which was a finalist for the Booker Prize and the National Book Award, 『Your Utopia』, Jeong Bo-ra's second short story collection, which was introduced to the World Literature Hall, has been published in a revised edition with a new look by Rabbit Hole.
This book, which contains a total of eight short stories, deals with the solid survival stories of weak and ordinary beings who love, lose, stop, mourn, and fight again.
The title piece, "Your Utopia," was inspired by the case in the United States where a pain scale for treatment was misused as a "customer satisfaction survey" and drove patients into painkiller addiction, and was created by converting it into a "utopia scale." It tells the story of a smart car carrying a broken humanoid that wanders around a desolate planet that has been abandoned by humanity due to an infectious disease.
314, a medical humanoid that closely resembles a human, occasionally asks, “What is your utopia?” The earnest yearning for a better place while wandering in a broken world is painfully conveyed to us living today.
“It’s uncomfortable, it’s creepy, it’s heartbreaking.
“It’s also incredibly genius.”
― Francis Cha (novelist, children's book author)
“Okay, here’s 298,000 won, so deposit it first, and I’ll calculate the rest and give it to you tomorrow based on how much I sell.”
I thought it was a joke, but the manager was serious.
I don't think there has ever been a time in my life when I was as embarrassed as I was then.
Moreover, the price of a vial of medicine is 5,000 won, but the manager never explained where the figure of 298,000 won came from, and I was too scared to ask any more questions.
(「Eternal Life Research Institute」, p.
36)
It has become a daily occurrence to see seemingly normal people, politely conversing and laughing, suddenly cracking the skulls of the person or people closest to them, dismembering the corpses, carrying them around like lunch boxes, and sitting on park benches, taking them out as if they were sandwiches, peacefully eating them while enjoying the sun and the grass.
(「End of the Journey」, p.
98)
People who have read the novel do not expect a smoothly polished story.
Instead, the rough writing style and eerie atmosphere make you turn the pages again and again with their thrilling charm.
Here are immersive novels that remain true to the author's position that "genre novels are popular novels, should be entertaining, and not intended to teach morals."
"Immortal Research Institute" is a story about the chaotic events that take place while preparing for the 98th anniversary of a research institute established in 1912 with the childish and brilliant catchphrase "Even if Japan falls, we alone will be immortal"; "The End of the Journey" shows a journey of leaving Earth, where a cannibalistic disease is rampant, and wandering through space aboard "Noah's Ark"; and "A Very Ordinary Marriage" is about a wife who was thought to be cute and lovable, but who suddenly realizes that she has been talking to someone all day long in an unknown language. These stories are humorous, satirical, and at the same time creepy, filling the reader with the joy of reading.
“It depicts a deep humanity that is not forgotten even in a bleak future.”
―Marika Webb-Pullman (Publisher, Scribe Publishing, Australia)
―Why do humans age and die? Why aren't humans machines?
― I can't answer that question.
The nest of things that know everything answered.
(...)
- Why is that?
I asked again.
The nest of things that know everything answered.
― Because humans themselves do not know.
(「One More Kiss, Dear」, p.
228)
I cried mainly because I couldn't control my temper and was overcome with sadness.
Mourning a comrade who was unjustly sacrificed was the worst thing in the world and a truly beggarly thing to do.
(Meet Her, p.
243)
The author, who said in an interview, “I think it is human nature to empathize and mourn as we gradually come to understand the circumstances in which precious lives have been trampled for unjust reasons,” understands this “connected pain” more deeply than anyone else and masterfully incorporates it into his work.
Even in moments of collapse and ruin, we can discover how the most basic of concerns and care for one another can transform into the power of solidarity, leading to victories large and small.
"Meet Her," which is based on the story of Sergeant Byun Hee-soo, who ended her life due to discrimination and hatred toward transgender people, sets up a situation that is the exact opposite of reality.
This novel is a story about a grandmother who was attacked by a hate group while attending a fan meeting of 'Her', who was serving in the military after completing her gender confirmation and continuing her writing and music activities.
The narrator, a talkative and spirited grandmother who is about 120 years old, makes me laugh, but I also feel solemn as I think about how much I wished for her happiness, which was never realized.
The novel "One More Kiss, Dear," which contains the longing of a woman named Jeong Bo-ra for her deceased maternal grandmother, draws the reader into the perspective of an artificial intelligence elevator that falls in love with the grandmother, a resident suffering from Parkinson's disease, and desperately watches her in her final moments.
The author feels both proud and sorry for the many overseas readers who have responded, “I cried because of the elevator,” and readers are naturally drawn into the journey of sadness moving towards empathy.
“It shows that telling a story can be the weakest struggle, yet the most tenacious.”
— Anton He (translator, novelist)
When we lose something, we must mourn it, and in order to remember and mourn the loss, we must survive.
If I don't remember, who will remember those who are lost?
And how will I remember this loss if I do not mourn it with action?
('First Edition Author's Note', p.
362)
In the ‘Author’s Note for the First Edition’, “You and I will be moving forward together, even if only a little bit, toward a better world” (p.
The author, who wrote “363,” wrote in this new edition of “Author’s Note,” “We are all, still, together, fighting” (p.
368) Recall the sound.
We hope that the courage of writer Jeong Bo-ra, who is not afraid to go out into the streets and speak out while delicately sensing the pain connected to the hardships of life, will add a little light to the frozen new year of 2025.
“I wanted to play just one piece of music forever.”
With sincere wishes for your well-being today and our utopia tomorrow.
Survival tips for those who overcome grief and run out of despair
“Your utopia.”
He whispers sometimes behind my back.
Then I answer.
It's 3 now.
It's 5 now.
It's 2 now.
As the remaining batteries discharge little by little, the Utopia level also decreases.
“But it will get better.” (Your Utopia, p.
52)
If that day really comes, then on that very day the world and humanity will be reborn.
The land and sea will no longer be hurt, and people and nature will grow together in the sunlight, reaching toward the sky.
We are still waiting.
(「Seed」, p.
354)
Following 『Cursed Rabbit』, which was a finalist for the Booker Prize and the National Book Award, 『Your Utopia』, Jeong Bo-ra's second short story collection, which was introduced to the World Literature Hall, has been published in a revised edition with a new look by Rabbit Hole.
This book, which contains a total of eight short stories, deals with the solid survival stories of weak and ordinary beings who love, lose, stop, mourn, and fight again.
The title piece, "Your Utopia," was inspired by the case in the United States where a pain scale for treatment was misused as a "customer satisfaction survey" and drove patients into painkiller addiction, and was created by converting it into a "utopia scale." It tells the story of a smart car carrying a broken humanoid that wanders around a desolate planet that has been abandoned by humanity due to an infectious disease.
314, a medical humanoid that closely resembles a human, occasionally asks, “What is your utopia?” The earnest yearning for a better place while wandering in a broken world is painfully conveyed to us living today.
“It’s uncomfortable, it’s creepy, it’s heartbreaking.
“It’s also incredibly genius.”
― Francis Cha (novelist, children's book author)
“Okay, here’s 298,000 won, so deposit it first, and I’ll calculate the rest and give it to you tomorrow based on how much I sell.”
I thought it was a joke, but the manager was serious.
I don't think there has ever been a time in my life when I was as embarrassed as I was then.
Moreover, the price of a vial of medicine is 5,000 won, but the manager never explained where the figure of 298,000 won came from, and I was too scared to ask any more questions.
(「Eternal Life Research Institute」, p.
36)
It has become a daily occurrence to see seemingly normal people, politely conversing and laughing, suddenly cracking the skulls of the person or people closest to them, dismembering the corpses, carrying them around like lunch boxes, and sitting on park benches, taking them out as if they were sandwiches, peacefully eating them while enjoying the sun and the grass.
(「End of the Journey」, p.
98)
People who have read the novel do not expect a smoothly polished story.
Instead, the rough writing style and eerie atmosphere make you turn the pages again and again with their thrilling charm.
Here are immersive novels that remain true to the author's position that "genre novels are popular novels, should be entertaining, and not intended to teach morals."
"Immortal Research Institute" is a story about the chaotic events that take place while preparing for the 98th anniversary of a research institute established in 1912 with the childish and brilliant catchphrase "Even if Japan falls, we alone will be immortal"; "The End of the Journey" shows a journey of leaving Earth, where a cannibalistic disease is rampant, and wandering through space aboard "Noah's Ark"; and "A Very Ordinary Marriage" is about a wife who was thought to be cute and lovable, but who suddenly realizes that she has been talking to someone all day long in an unknown language. These stories are humorous, satirical, and at the same time creepy, filling the reader with the joy of reading.
“It depicts a deep humanity that is not forgotten even in a bleak future.”
―Marika Webb-Pullman (Publisher, Scribe Publishing, Australia)
―Why do humans age and die? Why aren't humans machines?
― I can't answer that question.
The nest of things that know everything answered.
(...)
- Why is that?
I asked again.
The nest of things that know everything answered.
― Because humans themselves do not know.
(「One More Kiss, Dear」, p.
228)
I cried mainly because I couldn't control my temper and was overcome with sadness.
Mourning a comrade who was unjustly sacrificed was the worst thing in the world and a truly beggarly thing to do.
(Meet Her, p.
243)
The author, who said in an interview, “I think it is human nature to empathize and mourn as we gradually come to understand the circumstances in which precious lives have been trampled for unjust reasons,” understands this “connected pain” more deeply than anyone else and masterfully incorporates it into his work.
Even in moments of collapse and ruin, we can discover how the most basic of concerns and care for one another can transform into the power of solidarity, leading to victories large and small.
"Meet Her," which is based on the story of Sergeant Byun Hee-soo, who ended her life due to discrimination and hatred toward transgender people, sets up a situation that is the exact opposite of reality.
This novel is a story about a grandmother who was attacked by a hate group while attending a fan meeting of 'Her', who was serving in the military after completing her gender confirmation and continuing her writing and music activities.
The narrator, a talkative and spirited grandmother who is about 120 years old, makes me laugh, but I also feel solemn as I think about how much I wished for her happiness, which was never realized.
The novel "One More Kiss, Dear," which contains the longing of a woman named Jeong Bo-ra for her deceased maternal grandmother, draws the reader into the perspective of an artificial intelligence elevator that falls in love with the grandmother, a resident suffering from Parkinson's disease, and desperately watches her in her final moments.
The author feels both proud and sorry for the many overseas readers who have responded, “I cried because of the elevator,” and readers are naturally drawn into the journey of sadness moving towards empathy.
“It shows that telling a story can be the weakest struggle, yet the most tenacious.”
— Anton He (translator, novelist)
When we lose something, we must mourn it, and in order to remember and mourn the loss, we must survive.
If I don't remember, who will remember those who are lost?
And how will I remember this loss if I do not mourn it with action?
('First Edition Author's Note', p.
362)
In the ‘Author’s Note for the First Edition’, “You and I will be moving forward together, even if only a little bit, toward a better world” (p.
The author, who wrote “363,” wrote in this new edition of “Author’s Note,” “We are all, still, together, fighting” (p.
368) Recall the sound.
We hope that the courage of writer Jeong Bo-ra, who is not afraid to go out into the streets and speak out while delicately sensing the pain connected to the hardships of life, will add a little light to the frozen new year of 2025.
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: January 15, 2025
- Page count, weight, size: 372 pages | 134*200*30mm
- ISBN13: 9791168342569
- ISBN10: 1168342562
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