A Love Story from the End of the World

From the acclaimed author of Beasts of a Little Land and Reese’s Book Club pick City of Night Birds, an exquisite story collection about humans in precarious balance with the natural world. ‘A rare jewel … essential reading for right now’ COCO MELLORS ‘Kim’s work is ambitious, elegant and deeply intellectual’ PANDORA SYKES 'Resonant…affecting…lyrical…Throughout the collection, fleeting connections offer glimmers of hope…Her fiction offers a powerful reminder of what we stand to lose; that we are part of nature; and ‘we have within ourselves everything we need to save humanity’ Financial Times 'Finely wrought stories…examining human selfishness and finding gleaming moments of care and conviction, often prompted by an encounter with a nonhuman being. Humanness, Kim suggests, cannot be wrested from the natural world: when we lose the latter, we lose ourselves' The New Yorker What does it mean to live on our miraculous planet?

Vivid, transportive, and heartfelt, each of these ten stories is a reflection of individual choice in the face of manmade apocalypse: in a near-future Seoul encased by a translucent biodome, a civil engineer charged with its upkeep contemplates an arranged marriage. An American painter travels to the South of France and is seduced by an entrepreneur who claims to have unlocked human consciousness. And where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet, on an island that has turned into a gargantuan landfill from other countries’ waste, a boy has a fateful brush with K-pop superstars.

For readers of Richard Powers, Elif Shafak and Barbara Kingsolver, Juhea Kim’s first story collection views our world from breathtaking heights. A Love Story from the End of the World is an impassioned reminder that our humanity – and our best hope – will always be found in nature.