If one focuses on the word utopia as meaning perfection, you may not find that in YOUR UTOPIA, a collection of short stories by Bora Chung that has been translated from the Korean by Anton Hur. But you will find tales that instill fear --- of technology, our mortality, other people, life and death. And in many cases, you will find the opposite of a utopia. But perhaps that is the point, or the irony, of the title.

"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."

In the opening story, “The Center for Immortality Research,” the adage of “too many cooks in the kitchen” leads to a frightening nothing. An assistant has been put in charge of creating a celebration for the 98th anniversary of the Center. She answers one board member after another, constantly revises the invitations to the event, and is tasked Sisyphus-like to a mind-numbing number of minor alterations. Until finally, what readers had to see coming does indeed happen: the invitations go out in multiple variations with numerous errors. The outcome? Nothing. Why? Because the immortal can’t be fired from the Center for Immortality Research.

“A Very Ordinary Marriage” it is not. A couple meets in a dentist’s waiting room. The man thinks he has found the perfect wife because “she was the kind of person who was sincere in everything she did.” But was she? he asks himself when he finds nothing but her hand --- which is still wearing her wedding ring --- behind the toilet. This comes only after she confesses who she is…or, more accurately, where she is from. Maybe this is a cautionary tale about whether or not we truly know the spouses we choose. Or the ones who are chosen for us, unbeknownst to us.

When a nascent disease begins to spread in “The End of the Voyage,” humans turn to cannibalism. In “Seed,” a new race of human-plant hybrids emerge. And deepfake technologies are a major theme in “To Meet Her.”

In the titular story, the narrator is asked what “your utopia is” with regularity by a machine known simply as 314. The question is an apt one for readers picking their next book. 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.