Hello Baby
Will be published approx. on 28. July 2026
208 pages
E-Book
978-0-00-871503-8 (ISBN)
Description
'Illuminating ... beautifully' LYDIA KIESLING
'I loved it' ANNA HOGELAND
'Intimate, searing' RAMONA AUSUBEL
A cult feminist hit in South Korea, Hello Baby is a gripping and intimate portrait of motherhood, fertility and womanhood for fans of Butter and Breasts and Eggs.
Outside the chat, they had different jobs, personalities, financial backgrounds, but inside, they were all mothers-to-be anxiously awaiting their babies.
In a group chat called 'Hello Baby', six women share the anxieties and absurdities of undergoing IVF. They first met at Baby Angel Hospital, an elite fertility clinic in Seoul. Outside the chat, each woman is different - a journalist, a police officer, a vet, a lawyer and two housewives - but inside it, they've come to confide in one another. They know it is unlikely they will all get their happy ending, but while messaging, anything seems possible. So, when 46-year-old Jeong-hyo suddenly announces she has stopped treatment and goes silent, it rocks them all.
One year later, on Lunar New Year, Jeong-hyo sends a message announcing the birth of her daughter. As the stunned women count down to their visit to meet her and the new baby, they each reckon with their own journeys. Might this news hold fresh promise for each of them? To know that they will need to understand just how this unexpected miracle came to pass.
A cult feminist hit in South Korea, in this wry, courageous and disarmingly honest novel, Kim Eui-kyung, translated by Sora Kim-Russell, offers a unique and daring exploration of womanhood and motherhood today.
'I loved it' ANNA HOGELAND
'Intimate, searing' RAMONA AUSUBEL
A cult feminist hit in South Korea, Hello Baby is a gripping and intimate portrait of motherhood, fertility and womanhood for fans of Butter and Breasts and Eggs.
Outside the chat, they had different jobs, personalities, financial backgrounds, but inside, they were all mothers-to-be anxiously awaiting their babies.
In a group chat called 'Hello Baby', six women share the anxieties and absurdities of undergoing IVF. They first met at Baby Angel Hospital, an elite fertility clinic in Seoul. Outside the chat, each woman is different - a journalist, a police officer, a vet, a lawyer and two housewives - but inside it, they've come to confide in one another. They know it is unlikely they will all get their happy ending, but while messaging, anything seems possible. So, when 46-year-old Jeong-hyo suddenly announces she has stopped treatment and goes silent, it rocks them all.
One year later, on Lunar New Year, Jeong-hyo sends a message announcing the birth of her daughter. As the stunned women count down to their visit to meet her and the new baby, they each reckon with their own journeys. Might this news hold fresh promise for each of them? To know that they will need to understand just how this unexpected miracle came to pass.
A cult feminist hit in South Korea, in this wry, courageous and disarmingly honest novel, Kim Eui-kyung, translated by Sora Kim-Russell, offers a unique and daring exploration of womanhood and motherhood today.
Reviews / Votes
Praise for Hello Baby:'The stories of the women in Hello Baby sing like a Greek Chorus about the pain of longing, of unknown futures, and of relentless hope. As much a study of the yearning and process of having a baby through IVF, this novel illuminates the essentiality of female friendship and mutual support through it all. I loved it' Anna Hogeland, author of The Long Answer
'Hello Baby circles the hunger to meet one's child, who, before birth, is as mythical as any unicorn ... For the women here, to take the risk of imagining a child is to irrevocably change the future, no matter the outcome of treatment. This is an intimate, searing story' Ramona Ausubel, author of The Last Animal
'What a humane, sometimes funny, and always illuminating exploration of the hopeful, painful pursuit of pregnancy and birth that so many people undertake around the world every day. Every character is beautifully drawn; every story gripping and utterly real. This is an important work of art and witness' Lydia Kiesling, author of Mobility
'Six women bonded in an IVF group chat in Kim's ultra-contemporary South Korea give voice to their frustrations, vulnerabilities, and strength navigating twenty-first century infertility. In crystalline prose, Kim balances the yearning for motherhood with the exasperating, almost tragicomic weight of overbearing in-laws and checked-out husbands who can't distinguish one medical procedure from another' Yoojin Grace Wuertz, author of Everything Belongs to Us
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Product notice
Reflowable
ISBN-13
978-0-00-871503-8 (9780008715038)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Kim Eui-kyung is a novelist and essayist from Korea. Her debut novel, Youth Bankruptcy (2014) won the Korea Economic Daily Youth Literary Contest, and her second novel Call Center was awarded the 6th Soorim Literary Prize. Hello Baby is her first novel translated into English.
