A Love Story From the End of the World

by Juhea Kim

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‘In this collection, love becomes a framework for understanding what is worth the natural world, our capacity for human connection and the fragile but resilient threads that bind them. What emerges is not a pessimistic vision of apocalypse but a meditation on empathy and tenderness when such sentiments feel otherwise lost’ AnOther Magazine

'Encapsulates our very moment of ecological crisis' Country and Town House

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 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.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Speculative Fiction, Literary Fiction, Anthologies

218 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 20, 2025

About the author

Juhea Kim's internationally bestselling debut novel, Beasts of a Little Land, was a finalist for the 2022 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. It won the 2024 Yasnaya Polyana Award, Russia's biggest annual literary prize awarded by the Leo Tolstoy Estate-Museum. Juhea is donating the entire prize money to Siberian tiger and Amur leopard conservation. Beasts of a Little Land has been published in 13 countries to date and a TV series adaptation is currently in development. She donates a portion of the worldwide proceeds of Beasts of a Little Land to tiger and leopard conservation.
Juhea's second novel, City of Night Birds, is forthcoming in November 2024. She donates a portion of the proceeds of City of Night Birds to Caritas Somalia, a development and emergency aid NGO.

Her writing has been published in Granta, Slice, Zyzzyva, Catapult, Guernica, Shenandoah, Times Literary Supplement, Joyland, Sierra Magazine, The Independent, Portland Monthly, The Massachusetts Review, and Dispatches from Annares anthology, among others. Her translation of Yi Sang Award-winning author Choi In-Ho was published in Granta.

She has given lectures and workshops at Arizona State University, Seoul National University, Yonsei University, the University of São Paulo, Seoul International Book Fair, and more.

In addition to writing fiction, Juhea also works with essays and narrative journalism focusing on the environment. She serves as a goodwill ambassador for the Korean Tiger Leopard Conservation Fund. She graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Art and Archaeology. She lives in London. Follow Juhea on Instagram @juhea_writes.

Profile photo © Bitna Chung

Reviews

[Rosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a Nutshell: A story collection set in various eras and locations. The resilience of humans and the destruction of the planet are the common themes. Intriguing storylines, flawed characters, slow-paced character-oriented narratives. Mixed feelings about the endings. A good collection, but not for all.

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Author Juhea Kim is known for her two historical fiction novels. This is her first short story collection.

The ten stories herein span multiple eras (from historical to futuristic) and countries. There is no foreword introducing the theme of the collection, but it soon becomes clear that the stories have two things in common: broken people and a broken world.

The ‘broken people’ aspect is quite significant in this character-oriented collection. Each character is either flawed in some way or misused by others. They are a product of their own nurturing (or lack thereof) as well as of the society that is concerned more about personal wellbeing than about the planet.

The ‘broken world’, though highly dystopian in a couple of the stories, still feels very real. It’s a world where humans have learned to live with the consequences of their actions, where nature no longer protects, where climate crisis is the present and not the future. At the same time, despite these dire circumstances, the focus still stays on the characters. The resultant worldbuilding is thus an eerie one, where we get only hints of the damaged planet and its shattered environment and climate, but even these teeny glimpses are worrisome enough. (Will these stir us into caring better for our planet? I doubt it. Today’s humans are mostly idiots when it comes to implementing long-term actions that don't offer instant results. 😒)

The pacing is quite slow in the stories due to the characters driving the narration. The tone is also mostly melancholic, though a couple of scenes are heartwarming and hopeful. The length is quite varied across the tales, so some stories seem to drag a bit, especially as they also contain multiple subsections.

Most of the stories had plotlines that appealed to me. However, in a few cases, I felt like I wasn’t clever enough to appreciate the story, or at least, its ending. It felt overly literary. A couple of the stories came really close to a higher rating, but lost on account of their abrupt closure. Some narratives were creative enough to deserve a separate novel or novella.

As always, I rated the stories individually. Of the ten stories, four touched the 4-star mark. Two more stories (‘Older Sister’ and ‘A Love Story From the End of the World’) came close to this rating, but their endings left me wanting more. These were my top favourites:

🌏 Biodome: An intriguing setup that would have been fabulous in a novel. There's so much potential to extend this story. It wasn't bad, but it left me longing for more, which is both good and bad in short fiction. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🌏 KwaZulu-Natal: A bittersweet story about a young man and a young elephant. Excellent depiction of human nature in this one. Trigger for animal cruelty. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🌏 Mountain, Island: A really sad story. A dual narrative is rare in short fiction, but this makes good use of it to present two contrasting lifestyles. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🌏 Notting Hill: Took me a while to gauge how I felt about this more realistic version of Notting Hill, but I ended up deciding that I liked it for its true-to-life portrayal of relationships and the believable, less than saccharine ending. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall, this ought to be a good option, but not for those looking for a light or quick read. The character-focussed narration, slower pacing, and somewhat sudden endings would find restricted appeal, but to readers focussed more on the journey than on the destination, this set of stories offers plenty of mind fodder.

Recommended to literary fiction readers looking for a thought-provoking collection highlighting humans, their frailties and their blind hopefulness in a damaged world.

3.25 stars, based on the average of my ratings for each tale.


My thanks to HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction, and The Borough Press for providing the DRC of “A Love Story from the End of the World” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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[Paul Fulcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Oh, people knew when the point of no return was. They knew how to fix things too. Scientists issued cris de coeur from Durban to Oslo—it was in the newspapers every day, all that breast-beating exhortation. It’s not because they didn’t know, Herman. It’s because they didn’t want to.”

'A Love Story from the End of the World: Stories' is the third book by Juhea Kim (김주혜) after her two previous novels - her debut, the well-crafted historical love story (if not entirely my genre) Beasts of a Little Land and City of Night Birds.

This is a collection of 10 stories, all around the 20-page mark, which is long enough for Kim to neatly craft a separate world in each one, without outstaying their welcome.

Thematically these are, as the collection's title, suggests stories with an element of love (sometimes interpersonal and specific; other times for humanity and the planet) set in near-future end-times, the end being hastened by anthropocene climate change.

There is a Korean flavour to the works, with stories set in South Korea itself, Koreatown in Los Angeles in the US, and from a wider Korean diaspora, although others have a less culturally specific flavour.

The first story, 'Biodome', is set in New Seoul, now turned into a giant biodome to protect the city from the 황사, the yellow dust, the first such dome in the world, Korea then turning misfortune to its advantage by exporting the tech:

Yellow Day commemorated the Yellow Sand that blew in from the deserts of China and Mongolia every spring, carried by the west wind. This was a phenomenon that was documented in the earliest annals in ancient Korean history, going back at least two millennia. Through most of the twentieth century, the sandstorm happened three days a year in April, leaving a thick layer of dust over everything in the whole country, city, and countryside alike. Then as the desert in China grew ever larger, the sandstorm lasted longer every year: seven days, then twelve, twenty-five, fortythree, sixty-seven ...
[...]
They were saved at last, and only, by the Biodome—completed on April 14, thirty years ago. The first Yellow Day. When it was built, no one objected to it saying things like the sanctity of the sky or the humanity of nature. They were all glad to be alive and to breathe the air without worrying that it would cause cancer of the throat or lungs. The Bio (BEE-oh), as it was also called, was a clear enclosure of fifty-kilometer diameter over New Seoul, blocking off the Yellow Sand and letting in what remnants of sunlight could penetrate the particles. The Bio’s internal atmosphere was always a foggy sepia—not because of the sand passing over the enclosure, but because the combined glare of millions of neon lights reflected back on the inner surface of the Bio as a volcanic, redtinged brown, every day and every night.
[...]
Bio technology became Korea’s most important and lucrative export, so that even while importing nearly all food and other products that they no longer made themselves, the country as a whole became more prosperous than ever.

This concept of a world that is increasingly uninhabitable is a common theme across the collection.

'Older Sister' is primarily a story of the interfamilial relationship between two sisters, and their parents, Koreans who emigrated to the US - along with the age-enforced hierarchy, another fundamental aspect of Korean culture is arguing easily and intensely.

Their parents came to the United States after the 1965 reforms which replaced the ethnically discriminatory Immigration Act of 1924 (a needed reminder that the land of the free has historically, as well as increasingly presently, been anything but) and finally allowed legal Asian immigration. It takes in the LA riots, and the way in which different ethnic communities were set against each other, although the story's key present-day event comes from the increasingly widespread forest fires:

White people had been oppressing Black people for centuries before Koreans arrived here, and then they encouraged the narrative of Black-versus-Korean fight – better for them to keep the minorities fighting against one another.

The title piece, 'A Love Story from the End of the World', plays on the 'end of the world' theme in two ways. The narrator, 바다 (Bada) brought up in the US, but adopted from a Korean orphanage, is on a scientific polar expedition, in the increasingly melting ice-cap around the North Pole, where she tries to save an orphaned polar bear cub, while one of her fellow scientists - a Somalia-Norwegian, adopted after his parents died in a migration crossing, protests against nearby oil drilling, each realising that in both micro- and macro-ways they can make more of a difference by action than research.

And Bada lay there watching until the three white dots could no longer be distinguished from the waves, the sea, the sky—everything that made up this hard, ugly, broken, and beautiful world where, in the end, absolutely nothing mattered except how much one loved.

And that sentiment of taking action features in the author's impassioned afterword, where she particularly advocates veganism, but ultimately that each reader should 'find something that you feel truly passionate about and give this cause your energy and time'. And the author herself does so, as with her previous books, from the proceeds of the works:

Each of my three books has an associated cause to which I donate a portion of my proceeds. My first book was dedicated to Siberian tiger and Amur leopard conservation, and my second to Somalian development and aid. It’s tiger and leopard conservation that taught me how many years it takes to even understand my comprehensive role and long-term goal within a cause, but this realization has been incredibly rewarding. For this book, I changed my strategy: instead of choosing charismatic megafauna or a global cause, I am giving microgrants to grassroots organizations that are making tangible and lifechanging differences in their local communities.

A worthwhile and well-crafted work. 3.5 stars. Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC.

[Lonnie Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Oooh love stories from the end of the world, that sounds fun” I said. Reader, it was not fun, it was heartbreaking. While not a romance, but this book is very much about Love. All different stories, but all something about the way we connect to the world, people, and creatures around us. But they all made me just so sad. Which was probably the point. The last and title story was the perfect one to end on. It was one of the only ones that left me with a feeling of hope and the last line is really touching.

One thing I wish was that translations were provided where other languages were used. It kind of took me out of the story to have to look them up.

Thank you Netgalley & HarperCollins for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review

[Aneeka M A · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Love Story From The End Of The World by Juhea Kim

Oh boy, how should I even begin to write about this wonderful book? I’m mesmerized by how beautifully evocative it is, and how it inspires and haunts you in equal measure.

The book consists of ten stories with different settings. Beginning with a dystopian, barren, and damaged world to ending in a world somewhat alive but on the brink of irreversible destruction. What all these stories have in common are characters who care about nature, animals, and people more than they let on, but who are helplessly and devastatingly torn apart by a force greater than themselves.

The word ‘love story’ in the title isn’t restricted to typical love between two people; it also explores love between sisters, as well love between animals and humans. But beware, not every love story is a happy one. Some have tragic endings, while others are left to your interpretation, and some are genuinely happy ones. But even the happy endings don’t feel happy when you remember the setting and circumstances.

This is the kind of book that shows you a future that is not too distant. And honestly, this book is a little painful to read. Some stories suffocate you with their raw honesty and painful situations. The helpless detachment of humans when torn away from their roots, the search for a deeper meaning of life when covered on all sides by people who have become accustomed to it and have accepted artificial intelligence, who make you question your sanity and make you feel as if you are the problem and not the other way around, is disturbing in a much-needed way.

This book also has a lot of technical and scientific details such as genetic modification, cell culturing, research publications, and mentions of popular journals such as Nature, and so on. As a biotechnology student, I found these terms very relatable and they enriched my reading experience. Even with a non-science background, this book won’t throw you off track. So, there is no need to worry about that > <

Another aspect of the book that greatly impressed me is the number of diverse topics these stories covered. From racism and hierarchical manipulations to technological discoveries and ethical concerns, the author��s careful and thoughtful research is visible in every story.

As a person who loves nature, this book showed me the harsh reality of the looming dystopian future if we don’t correct our ways now. A world without sky, seasons, and animals scared me more than I would like to accept when I imagined it. The number of realizations I had when reading this book made my reading experience worth it. I felt some of the stories were a little dragged, which made me a little bored in the middle, and that is what took away 0.25 stars for me.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to everyone who wants to read something that is eye-opening as well as emotionally rich.

Rating: 4.75/5
Thank you, Harper Fiction and NetGalley, for the opportunity to read this book.

[Amy ☁️ (tinycl0ud) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a heavy collection of ten stories set possibly in the same universe, that is, our current one and not too far off into the future. A conceivable one, if we project the worst of right now tenfold. In one story, Korea invented a protective "biodome" to cover select cities, but that's just a stopgap measure. In another story, humans live in "bioarks" that are constantly on the move because land has become inhospitable to human life and people cling to flimsy concepts of nationality while feeling profoundly unmoored and nationless. Another story imagines a country turned into a landfill for foreigners to visit and feel superior.

There's no magical technology that can save humanity from itself, and in a way, the vision presented here is rather bleak. For instance, the ice caps can literally be almost all gone and still there will be a corporation drilling for oil. Can people really be that stubborn about digging their own graves? Yes, probably. I was also impressed by the ventriloquistic quality of her stories—e.g., the African narrator in 'KwaZulu-Natal,' the Yakama narrator in 'A Woman's Life, in 10 Scenes'—and the global scale of her vision. Her stories span Korea, USA, France, Africa, the Atlantic Ocean, Southeast Asia, London, and Norway.

In the author's note, she wrote, "If you're an artist, it is not conscionable to use our ecological catastrophe as material for fiction and not personally do something to help." She presents a concise but convincing list of reasons for individuals to go vegan, or at the very least, make an effort as far as possible. Given that this came right after how her last story made me cry (baby animals are my greatest weakness), the appeal is undeniable.

[James B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and Ecco for the ebook. These ten stories span the world, most in a slightly altered future. One couple is thinking about dating, but it can’t work because she never dates anyone who doesn’t live on the hundredth floor or above. A woman adopted as a baby in Korea goes to the ends of the earth trying to find any sign from her birth mother. In one of the poorest place on earth, a small island that is disappearing under mountains of trash, a young boy tries to impress a K-pop band for a chance at a new life. Again and again these are big idea stories that are so grounded in the day to day life of real people.

[hans · Rating 4 out of 5]

10 stories with ecological and emotional depth themes told in an exploration of humanity, climate change and human relationship premise. Having slow-burning prose with melancholic tone in a surreal hue of its setting which mostly set in the near-future or dystopian-like backdrop; from an ordinary neighbourhood to cities, remote island, a giant shelter and Arctic seas. I was engrossed on the author’s writing style which I find quite vivid and poetic as well how she crafted most of the characters to be rooted in an unresolved dilemmas and emotionally flawed.

The titular story; A Love Story From The End Of The World was the most standout to me for its remote Arctic sea amid the melting ice backdrop following a marine biologist and her bond with an abandoned polar bear cub. Engaging, bit heartwrenched for its familial and identity views, and I liked the ending so much. Loved both Biodome for its quietly tense prose with an arranged love and freedom vs duty premise set in a near-future Seoul where people live in an enclosed dome due to air pollution and a riveting two sisters tale in Older Sister with its diaspora, on isolation with years of social unrest and environmental stress backdrop.

I liked how the friendship and one’s dream were observed in Mountain, Island with an engrossing setting at a landfill as well Bioark with its huge the ark concept where earth is a toxic wasteland and humans on the verge of extinction. Nothing too dull overall for me despite most were heavily plotted on its eco awareness, having anticlimactic progress or with no twist whatsoever— it was haunting and bittersweet, too thought-provoking and impactful throughout. 4/5*

**thank you Tines Reads for the gifted review copy!

[Gina Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 ⭐️ absolutely beautiful book of short stories

[Sarah Reiff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very clearly a collection and sometimes the themes were maybe hammered in a bit much for my liking, but the tenderness in these stories moved me to 5 stars

[Rahdika K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was going back and forth to rate either 4 or 5, went with 5 instead. I absolutely loved this book, though it’s mostly heartbreaking. Each story has the theme of love but between who and what is the core element. I especially liked the author’s note towards the end. Overall, highly recommended to read given that the stories here are eerily getting closer to reality. 😭

[Victoria Finch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not much of a short story reader, but each one of these gripped me from beginning to end. This collection is collectively powerful - on love, on the environment, on race and class and the way hope shows its face so absurdly, still.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories about humans in a world in varying states of ecological catastrophe, often from a Korean perspective. The title comes from story #10. I appreciated that the Author's Note at the end was basically, "put your money/actions where your mouth is." I'm rating this as a 3.5, rounded to 4 stars.

The stories:
1. Biodome- In the future, a big, annual sandstorm covered Korea and contaminated all the food and water supply. Eventually, the government built a biodome to protect New Seoul's citizens and agriculture. Manager Park, who maintains the biodome, goes on some dates and contemplates love.
2. Color of the New World- An American artist travels to France to see some of the last snow in the world and has two vacation romances that are as fleeting as the snow.
3. A Woman's Life, in 10 Scenes- Celeste (Cece) Thompson falls in love with Tommy Wolf, a Yakama horse racer. Cece's dad holds the rights to a hot spring that the Oregon water companies want to access. This is a series of scenes in the Thompson family.
4. KwaZulu-Natal- A biracial Afrikaner boy's only friend is a baby elephant that his (abusive) park ranger father allowed to live.
5. Bioark- Humans destroyed the earth, and all that's left are a few biodomes and the Bioark. Herman lives on the Bioark with the other hot young people, but he starts to question everything.
6. Older Sister- A Younger Sister remembers her tense relationship with her Older Sister, including a house ghost, the 1992 LA riots, competitive college applications and careers, and a wildfire rescue.
7. Mountain, Island- An impoverished community survives on a landfill, and Heru tries to get famous doing kpop dances.
8. The Tree of Life- K was a lonely child who was unwanted by his arms manufacturer father and novelist mother. K shows up for military service and has an earth-shattering experience.
9. Notting Hill- An American moves to Notting Hill for a romantic adventure working for a handsome man she knows professionally. It doesn't go down like the romcoms.
10. A Love Story from the End of the World- Bada's scientific research team travels to a Norwegian island to study climate change and end up rescuing a polar bear.

This collection was a slow read for me. I think I had a hard time getting into this book because the stories were slower and more thoughtful, and the first ones didn't have a ton of action. Goodreads has this book in Literary Fiction (and Speculative Fiction and Science Fiction), and I think I would agree. Interesting stories, but harder to get through than the SFF short stories I typically read.

CW: Child abuse (stories 4 and 8), uncertain memory (story 5), animal death (story 8).

Thanks to Netgalley and Ecco for the ARC.

[mr. purple · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was provided to me by NetGalley and HarperCollins UK. This doesn't affect my review

A Love Story from the End of the World: Stories by Juhea Kim - DNF at 40%

I was really excited to read this book, but unfortunately, it just wasn't for me. There's nothing wrong with it, but the way the short stories are done just didn't allow me to connect to anything. Eventually, it just became a bit of a slog for me.

However, I do think the concepts in here were cool, which is why it has two stars! I also like how all of the stories were about different kinds of love. Sometimes, these types of books only focus on romantic love (and soooometimes parental love), but this one had a good variety.

I'm sure a lot of people will love this, but this just wasn't for me. (Additionally, my copy had some severe formatting issues that made it very hard to read).

[Yuvaraj kothandaraman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Juhea Kim's debut collection is a profound meditation on love, belonging, and survival at the margins of human existence. This is not a typical romance novel. These interconnected stories explore what it means to love when the world is ending, when identity is fragmented, and when we're searching for connection in the most unlikely places.
Each story is a universe unto itself, yet together they form a constellation about how people reach toward each other, sometimes to save themselves, sometimes to save others, and sometimes knowing that love itself is an act of defiance against an uncaring world.

The First Story: A Girl's Impossible Pregnancy and the Longing for Recognition

The opening story begins with a seventeen-year-old Indigenous girl named Celeste from the Yakama Nation living in White Swan, Washington. She becomes pregnant by Tommy Wolf, a charming horse rider from her community. When she tells Tommy, he initially seems supportive but then reveals he's moving to Portland for work and can't support her.

What unfolds is heartbreaking: Celeste waits for Tommy to contact her, but weeks pass with nothing. She decides to drive to Portland to find him, using Burnside Street as her only clue. The city is overwhelming and full of gas stations, so different from her small reservation community. After hours of searching and getting lost, pregnant and exhausted, Celeste finds herself on a bridge over the Columbia River in complete darkness. The book describes it beautifully and terrifyingly: she sees the "blackest things in the world - the human heart and the watery depths." She leans over the railing, ready to jump, wanting to disappear so Tommy will have to remember her.

Just before she jumps, her mother Eva calls. Celeste breaks down completely, asking her mother to come get her. Eva's response is pure love: "No matter where in the world." The story ends with Celeste's rescue, but you understand something crucial, this is a story about being seen, about mattering to someone. Tommy was never going to see Celeste. But her mother does. Her mother always will.

◆ Celeste's longing to be seen and remembered is desperate and human
◆ The bridge scene is visceral, you feel her suicidal ideation completely
◆ Her mother's unconditional love is the counterpoint to Tommy's abandonment

The Second Story: The Indian Horse Relay - Where Love Becomes Visible Through Motion

The second piece circles back to Tommy Wolf from the first story, but from a different perspective. Celeste watches Tommy participate in an Indian horse relay, a traditional Yakama Nation sport where riders on bare-backed horses compete in a three-mile relay race. Tommy rides with intensity and grace, his black braids streaming behind him as he races on his final horse.

The beauty of this section is that we see what made Celeste fall in love with Tommy in the first place. He's magnificent on horseback, there's something transcendent about his connection with the horses. The race becomes a metaphor for what Celeste can't have: the pure, unthinking beauty of Tommy in his element, doing what he was born to do. She can't own him. She can't keep him. She can only watch.

The story structure itself shows how the same moments are experienced completely differently depending on who's observing. This is Kim's genius, she shows us that love is not shared understanding but parallel universes of experience.

◆ The horse relay is raw physicality and grace
◆ Tommy's aliveness in motion mirrors what Celeste loves and can't hold
◆ The race symbolizes freedom Tommy won't surrender for her

The Third Story: A Boy and His Elephant in South Africa - Love Across Species
One of the most unusual and moving stories in the collection takes place in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. A young mixed-race boy (half-Zulu from his mother, half-Afrikaner from his father) lives isolated on the edge of a wildlife park. His father is a harsh, mean-spirited park ranger with a violent streak. The boy has no mother (she abandoned him as a baby), no school, no other children, only his father and the animals.

One brutally hot day, the father brings home an orphaned baby elephant in the back of the truck. The elephant is traumatized and won't move. The boy sits with the elephant for hours, providing shade with an umbrella and offering water. When evening comes, he throws his body over the elephant like a blanket to warm it. The elephant begins to move and survive because the boy chose to stay with it.

From that moment, the boy and Rocky (named after Rocky Stallone) become inseparable. They eat together, sleep together, walk through the bush together. The boy is simultaneously the elephant's mother, brother, and best friend. They develop such a deep bond that when the father tries to beat the boy during a drunken rage, Rocky somehow knows the boy is in danger and charges through the bush, trumpeting and ramming at lionesses to protect him.

Eventually, the boy's father tells him Rocky must join a herd of wild elephants. The boy understands this is right, Rocky needs to be with his own kind but the goodbye is devastating. Rocky wraps his trunk around the boy's shoulders like he wants to stay. The boy has to peel him off and say, "Go on, little oke, go make new chommies." This is a love story about letting go, about sacrificing for someone else's freedom even though it destroys you.

The narrative voice is perfectly rendered., part South African accent, part heartbreak, part resilience. The story echoes the first story but inverts it: instead of the caregiver abandoning, here the caregiver must abandon to be moral.

◆ Love between human and animal is portrayed as completely real and valid
◆ The boy's isolation makes his bond with Rocky everything
◆ Letting go becomes the ultimate expression of love

The Fourth Story: A Woman at the End of the World Living on an Ark

The Ark is a literal spaceship where the last of humanity is sailing after Earth has been destroyed by environmental collapse. Society has been rebuilt inside this vessel with strict hierarchies, pharmaceutical control, and artificial living. A man named Herman lives in a second-class cabin and has become close to Apollo (the CEO's son) and is falling for him romantically.

Herman discovers that he's being manipulated, the women he sees (Diana, Esme) are not real people but manifestations of the Ark's system controlling him. The Ark's CEO, Stella (Apollo's mother), explicitly tells him that humanity always chose short-term comfort over long-term survival. "It's not because they didn't know, Herman. It's because they didn't want to." The entire Ark is a kind of life raft for those wealthy and connected enough to escape the dying world.

Herman becomes obsessed with an albatross, a bird that can fly 600 miles a day without flapping its wings, that circumnavigates Earth, and that abandons its chicks to force them to learn to fly. He watches the albatross and dreams of jumping ship, of swimming to freedom even knowing it will probably kill him. But when Apollo texts him "I'm falling for you," Herman hesitates. Love -even artificial, constructed love is more compelling than freedom.

The final image is Herman at the gunwale, about to jump, about to become like the albatross and just fly. But he catches himself at the railing because Apollo is asking for him. He's not a bird. He's only human. And being human means being susceptible to love, even when that makes you trapped.

The Ark story is Kim's most science fiction, but it's really about how love can be both a cage and a reason to live. It's about the fundamental human need for connection even in dystopia.

◆ The Ark represents a constructed, artificial world that seems perfect but is a prison
◆ Herman's temptation to abandon is the albatross temptation - freedom
◆ Love pulls him back into captivity, and he accepts it

The Fifth Story: Sisters, Ghosts, and the Korean Riot of 1992

The longest and most intricate story follows two Korean-American sisters, Older Sister and Younger Sister growing up in LA Koreatown. The relationship is complicated: Older Sister is presented as smarter and more hardworking, even though their mother frequently tells them that Younger Sister is naturally more brilliant. This creates a dynamic where Younger Sister is resentful but also deeply dependent on Older Sister's care and protection.

One night in 1992 (the actual LA Riots), they both witness a ghost together, each seeing it in a different form which creates a shared trauma that bonds them irrevocably. This ghost is never explained but represents something they witnessed together that others didn't and could never understand.

The girls' parents are first-generation Korean immigrants. Father is a physics PhD who gave up a promising career to immigrate alone with $200. He works in a grocery store. Mother was also educated in Korea but now works service jobs. When the riots come to their neighborhood, father takes a handgun to the rooftop and shoots back at rioters to protect their building and livelihood.

The trauma of the riots, nearly losing everything - bonds the family through shared survival. The girls become hyperachieving to give their parents "something to live for." When Younger Sister gets college rejections from every school except Princeton, Older Sister makes a vow: she'll work to pay Younger Sister's tuition if needed. When Younger Sister does get into Princeton with a full scholarship, Older Sister attends only a physician assistant program instead of medical school.

The deepest moment: After Older Sister returns home during spring break, they're lying in bed in the dark, just like when they saw the ghost. Older Sister tells Younger Sister, "They think we're just test-taking machines and pianists. Not creative." She tells her to go to NYU or Princeton, to escape and that if necessary, she'll sacrifice her own ambitions to pay for it. This is the translation of the elephant story into human terms: love is letting the one you care for be free while you stay behind.

◆ The 1992 riots are the traumatic backdrop that explains Korean-American immigrant experience
◆ The sister bond supersedes everything else in both their lives
◆ Each sacrifices for the other, but Older Sister's sacrifice is heavier

The Sixth Story: Bada Moon - An Oceanographer at the End of the World Seeking Her Mother
Bada Moon is a marine biologist on a research mission to a tiny, unnamed Arctic islet. She was adopted by American Protestant parents (the Mallory family) as an infant. Her Korean name "Bada Moon" (Sea Door) was given to her by her birth mother, who left her with a stuffed whale toy. Bada spent years searching for her mother across the world - Seoul, South Africa, France, Indonesia, always looking for a woman she'd never seen.

On the islet, Bada meets Hendrik, a Somali refugee researcher, and Ingrid, a cold and ambitious scientist. When Bada finds an orphaned polar bear cub (Hayang, meaning "white" in Korean), she decides to care for it instead of focusing on her research. She names it after the Korean word for white, connecting this cub to her search for her mother in Korea.

Bada keeps the cub alive through the summer, feeding it, playing with it, teaching it to hunt arctic tern eggs. She falls in love with both the cub and with Hendrik. But the cub is only eight months old, it needs two and a half more years with its mother to survive in the wild. Bada understands she's dooming Hayang by keeping it alive, because she cannot provide what the cub needs.

When a research ship arrives to measure ocean drilling sites, Hendrik takes the satellite phone and kayaks out into the Barents Sea to protest the ship (nonviolently). He vanishes for days. When he returns, Bada realizes she has to choose: care for the cub and prevent it from becoming wild, or abandon it so it can become what it needs to be. She chooses abandonment. She lets Hayang go into the wild, knowing the cub has only a tiny chance of survival.

The central tragedy: Bada was abandoned by her mother because her mother believed it was the right thing to do. Now Bada abandons Hayang for the same reason. The cycle continues. And Bada doesn't know if her mother ever regretted it, just as Hayang will never know if Bada loves her.

◆ Bada's search for her mother mirrors her care for the polar cub
◆ Abandonment for love and for freedom are the same act
◆ The book ends not with resolution but with this impossible choice

Strengths:

These stories are beautiful. Kim's prose is precise, lyrical, and emotionally devastating. The structural interconnections (stories circling back to previous ones, themes echoing across continents and timelines) are sophisticated without feeling show-offy. Each story can stand alone, but together they create a complex meditation on love, sacrifice, abandonment, and what we owe to those we care for.

The characters are vivid and fully realized despite sometimes appearing briefly. Celeste's desperation, the South African boy's loneliness, Bada's scientific rigor warring with maternal instinct, the sisters' unbreakable bond, you believe in all of them immediately.

The inclusion of diverse settings (Native American reservations, South Africa, Korea, the Arctic, dystopian space, LA during the 1992 riots) prevents the collection from feeling narrow or singular. Each story explores love differently based on its specific cultural and environmental context.

The book's willingness to explore uncomfortable truths about love is rare. Love doesn't always lead to happy endings. Sometimes love means letting go. Sometimes love means being abandoned. Sometimes the person who loves you most is the person you resent most. These are truths that need telling.

Weaknesses:

The Ark story, while fascinating, is somewhat disconnected from the others thematically. It works intellectually but feels almost like it belongs in a different collection. The science fiction elements are less grounded than the other stories.

Some readers might find the collection emotionally exhausting. There are moments of joy, but the dominant tone is melancholic, even tragic. Every love story ends in some form of loss or compromise. This is philosophically appropriate but makes for heavy reading.

Who Should Read This:
Anyone who loves literary fiction that explores emotional truth.
Anyone interested in how love manifests differently across cultures and species and situations. Anyone who appreciated books like "The Overstory" or "Dept. of Speculation" or short story collections like "Her Body and Other Parties."
You should read this if you're willing to be emotionally moved and aren't looking for comfort or happy endings. This is for readers who want to think deeply about what we owe to each other and whether love always leads to good outcomes.

My Rating:
5/5 stars

[Nandini · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow i loved this - i wished pretty much every story could’ve been longer, but at the same time they were all still so good at their existing lengths. many feelings were felt including sadness, existential dread, and tiny seeds of hope. the depictions of climate change were sometimes seeming farfetched but most times way too real. my fave stories were probably
“older sister” and the titular “a love story from the end of the world”

[Nathaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are exceptionally well written short stories that dive into various futures and the people who maneuver through them. As with all short story collections, I really connected with some stories and didn't connect so much with others. With this collection, I can confidently say that each story was worth reading.

[Guinevere DelaMare]

(Audiobook) DNF

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moving and emotional in a way that took me by surprise. One of (maybe the best?) collection of stories I’ve ever read

[Antoinette Hoppe · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars because I had to get used to all the different stories. But in the end, everything made sense. Just took me awhile to get engaged and I didn’t like that.

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a giveaway, thank you for the arc!

I really enjoyed most of the stories in this book. there's a focus on individuals affected by the suffering of their environments. all in all the book was heartbreaking but tender enough to make you feel very connected to the characters and hopeful for their future choices. loved the writing style and diversity of the stories. I need an update on Celeste, please. definitely read this if you're feeling like the world is chaos and you need a hug.

*fyi I noticed the table of contents doesn't match up with the actual page numbers

[Kathy Piselli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utterly fantastic stories. Probably Older Sister was my favorite this time. There's a scene where Younger Sister is driving north, leaving California and her old life behind, as so many others have done, along the coast road "as it seemed more celebratory for new beginnings. The road hugged the cliffs with a blue green ocean crashed with all its lunar force and turned to foam brighter than the purest snow. Redwoods older than Christ stood like cathedrals with bark instead of limestone and needles instead of steeples. Farther north in Yachats I saw a gray whale and her calf on their way up to the arctic. In this place where the forest met the sea, the air tasted sweet and mossy…Anything that remains true to itself is beautiful, which is why nothing in nature is ugly when you look at it with the right eyes." In the same story is the harrowing krystalnacht experience of Korean storeowners attacked by rioters during Rodney King. Kim preserves many such eyewitness accounts in her stories, you can see them even in the fantasy future ones. I liked the hopefulness of her last story (Love story) and her political ending - perhaps there is a chance for us after all. I immediately checked out her other book to read.

[Dimitri Cullipher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley, Juhea Kim, and Ecco for a digital copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I will admit, first and foremost, that I read through the ten stories in "A Love Story from the End of the World" by Juhea Kim while struggling through Covid. Perhaps it was the cold medicine I was on, furiously hoping for some relief, or maybe it was the simple idea of being an immune compromised person currently sick with a very terrifying bug that could potentially kill me, but Juhea Kim's writing came at me in shades and hues of color the likes of which I have never read before. Natural colors, man-made colors, but all sorts of them, psychedelic in nature, woven into every word on the page.

These stories are tied together with not only color, but also with the experiences of humans living in a semi-apocalyptic world. A world--or worlds, rather--similar to our own, but one step beyond. Our world in the next ten years. What does it mean to be human, to love, when the world is one step closer to the end? What horrors have we brought upon ourselves, upon our planet, and it is too late to go back? Will the colors we see, the love we feel, in that future, be anything like what we experience now?

Kim offers up ten stories as fever dreams, whispers of love and loss, yearning to belong while still being held back by society, by our own faults and lack of imagination. How far from home would you travel to experience a winter similar to what you loved when you were a child? Is it worth it to tie yourself down with someone you barely know, just for a sense of normalcy when your entire existence is dependent on a slowly failing bubble? It there hope in internet fame when your home is little more than a trash heap?

I feel like Kim's collection of short stories raises more questions than provides answers, but sometimes, that's fine. We, as humans, do not have all of the answers. We keep pushing forward, building and creating and destroying, without really knowing what we are losing until it is already lost.

Maybe this review makes no sense. I am still hopped up on cold and flu meds, begging for some relief, while writing this. There is a very good chance that I will look back on this review with confusion. Yet, for right now, for right this second, "A Love Story" was like a warm bowl of instant soup in the middle of a fever. Not exactly perfect, a bit too salty, a bit too neon in color, but just what the doctor ordered.

[Heather Warner · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5 stars*. This is an emotional and lyrical collection of stories about how various people are living with the effects of climate change. Some stories were hopeful and others were quite sad but all really brought the link between humanity and nature to the forefront. Just a lovely collection that I recommend everyone reads-I think we all need reminded why it is so important to do whatever we can to save our environment.

“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 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.” (From the book blurb)

[Wesley Rosemont · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A Love Story From the End of the World” is a polished and intellectually curious collection, but its restraint is both its strength and its limitation. Juhea Kim is clearly more interested in the emotional aftershocks of collapse than in the mechanics of catastrophe itself, using environmental ruin and futuristic livelihoods as a backdrop for examining intimacy, memory, and moral inheritance. When this approach works, it’s quietly devastating; when it doesn’t, the stories can feel overly careful, even distant.

The strongest pieces, “Bioark” and “Older Sister,” fully earn their emotional weight. “Bioark” is the most conceptually ambitious story in the collection, blending ecological anxiety with ethical ambiguity and personal loss. It asks difficult questions about preservation, legacy, and control in a dying world, and crucially, it doesn’t offer easy answers. “Older Sister,” meanwhile, strips away much of the speculative scaffolding to focus on familial obligation and emotional labor, proving that Kim’s greatest strength lies in her psychological insight rather than her world-building.

Other stories, like “Notting Hill,” are compelling but less memorable. While thematically aligned with the collection’s interests in nostalgia and displacement, it feels more like a mood piece than a fully developed narrative. This is a recurring issue throughout the book: some stories prioritize atmosphere and concept over momentum, leaving certain emotional arcs underexplored. At times, the characters seem to exist primarily to embody ideas rather than to resist or complicate them.

Additionally, Kim’s prose (precise, elegant, and controlled) can verge on emotional distance. The refusal to indulge in messiness or excess keeps the collection intellectually clean, but occasionally at the cost of urgency. I found myself wanting more risk: sharper ruptures, deeper contradictions, or moments where the stories might break open rather than resolve so neatly.

Still, the collection succeeds in reframing the “end of the world” as something ongoing and uneven, especially through its attention to environmental collapse and speculative futures shaped by scarcity. Kim is at her best when she allows the personal and the political to collide without smoothing the edges. While not every story fully lands, the collection as a whole is thoughtful, cohesive, and often haunting.

[brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of stories! Juhea Kim's writing is absolutely beautiful and packed with care and tenderness. Each of these stories was so unique, but together they fit perfectly as a collection. They were all thought-provoking in different ways, touching on themes of love, ecological crisis, and human connection. While many (most) of the stories are heartbreaking, there are threads of hope throughout. With how well-written these were and the author's obvious care for the themes, this was one of my favorite short-story collections I've read in a while. 9/10

[Aqroba Ruhma · Rating 5 out of 5]

another read for my spiraling thought about the current state of the world, which is pretty depressing to say the least. bad news keeps coming out and it seems to be getting worse day by day. what a wild early year we have. i think this is why I am always drawn to books of similar themes like this one. i am sold the moment the shopkeeper of an independent bookstore recommended this book to me. i just know i will love the book and yes iam!

this book is a collection of ten short stories of human connection in times when the world descends to end. some of the stories have a sort of dystopian setting which i found very interesting. other set in a more realistic time background and that makes the story almost feel eerily similar to the world we know today. there are ones about future life in an ark after the climate is beyond repair, heartwarming connection between human and an elephant, complicated sibling relationship of an immigrant, a biotech specialist who contemplates his life while being set up in a matchmaker, even an inspiring kpop idol group.

i'm fully in awe of how juhea kim manages to create all these stories with her universes, characters and plots. everytime i start a new chapter, it always amazes me to read and comprehend what the story is about. her themes such as climate, environment, animal, and technology are so so so interesting. the portrayal of love and relationship just makes it even better. my favourite stories are bioark, the tree of life, and mountain, island. but really, all of them stand out on their own. those three i picked because of their plots and ideas.

the thing about reading short stories is they are…. short. but these stories left me wanting to get more of them. like, just give me a whole book of bioark already. this book is truly a gem. im looking forward to read another works from juhea kim!

[Cassia Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories in this collection have an overarching environmental theme. Some are speculative, postulating a near future after environmental calamities. Some are set in the world as we know it, with less privileged nations and some animal species bearing the brunt of global warming and humans’ flagrant disregard for nature. All deal with complex relationships, different forms of love against a diverse global backdrop.

The titular “A Love Story from the End of the World” is my favourite and explores the longing of an adopted child for her birth mother. Steeped in melancholy, deeply moving, this story’s ending made my eyes prickle with unexpected tears.

Another perfectly crafted story is “KwaZulu-Natal”. The protagonist has such a distinctive voice it hooked me from the get-go, and the ending’s so beautifully written it moved me to tears.

“Mountain, Island” is utterly devastating. The protagonist is a young boy living on an island that has become the rubbish dump of developed nations. Against the horrific setting, the comic glimmers (those lyrics!) brought home the insane polarities in our world, the rich-poor divide on a global scale.

“Older Sister” is deftly layered – on a familial scale, sibling dynamics and parental sacrifice are set against the larger picture of the 90s LA riots and beyond. The protagonist’s coming-of-age is a young person’s cry into the seemingly uncaring world.

Poignant, deeply moving, these four stories are what I consider to be perfect short stories, allowing a glimpse into a person’s life at one or more defining moments. It takes considerable skill to craft short stories with relatable characters whose inner worlds and outer struggles tear the reader apart. The author has the courage of her convictions, more admirable than ever in today’s socio-political climate.

[Ashley : bostieslovebooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks Ecco for the gifted ARC book.

I felt immersed in climate grief while reading as each story explores the relationship between humans and the natural world – a world that is crumbling due to man-made disaster. My favorite stories were the first and last of the collection. In Biodome, Seoul is enclosed in a translucent shell to protect the city from fatal air pollution. The civil engineer responsible for the biodome’s upkeep considers an arranged marriage. In A Love Story from the End of the World, a research scientist on a polar expedition, who’s unsuccessful search for her birth mother resulted in estrangement from her adoptive family, rescues an abandoned polar bear cub despite a colleague’s objection to the interference. Another colleague, also an adoptee, protests oil drilling at a nearby location.

Kim does well within the length of these short stories to give developed characters and narrative while also leaving space for the reader to explore their own thoughts on the subjects at hand (and there’s quite a lot to think about). The themes of human vs. natural world and climate are found throughout while the particular type of love represented varies for each story – romantic, self, familial, inter-species, platonic. The very last line of the final story sums up everything quite perfectly and provides a satisfying conclusion to these poignant, heartfelt, and heartbreaking stories.

In her Author’s Note (don’t miss reading this!), Kim discusses what literature can do, an artist’s duty, veganism to reduce ecological impact, and other sustainable habits. She donates a portion of each of her book’s proceeds to an associated cause – this one being microgrants to grassroots organizations. This truly connects to the messages within these stories.

[Milly Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short story collection from the author of City of Night Birds, a book that I enjoyed. Rather than be about the world of ballet, these stories focus upon a common theme - the destruction of the planet but seen through the eyes of those who have their own story to tell and sometimes it feels as though the characters care more about themselves than about the bigger picture. We see characters dealing with their own lives against an almost dystopian backdrop in some cases as there are hints about the world as it has changed. As with all short story collections, I find that some touch me more than others and this was the case here. One I liked was the first in the collection, Biodome, which I would have been happy to see developed as a novel. The idea that inhabitants of some cities are now living under a dome for protection, but that is only a short term measure. In another story people are travelling on bioarks as the land itself is uninhabitable. Another is about an island gradually being covered by refuse and there are tourist trips for those wealthy enough to want to view the trash. But there are also ‘love stories’. A woman who goes to live in Notting Hill to work for a handsome man and is looking for romance. And then the one that brought a tear to my eye which was the final one about a team travelling to study the ice caps and who end up rescuing a polar bear cub. The love stories are about love for each other, animals, nature and the planet and they are a reminder that not every story has a happy ending. A good read.

[Helen Haythornthwaite · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of ten short stories which I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

They’re set around the world from Korea, to the USA, to Europe and the Arctic. The author is an advocate for conservation, and most of these stories do highlight some of the concerns which are facing our world and could become more dangerous in the future: global warming, artificial intelligence and landfill sites.

Each story has a main character whose thoughts, concerns, decisions are examined in the face of those around them. They are all very unique tales and, as with any short story I read, left me wanting to hear more about them.

One of my favourites was the final story which has the same title as that of the book. It’s not a love story in the traditional sense, but does highlight the effects of a warmer world on the regions covered in ice.

There was just one story which I found hard to read - Kwazulu-Natal which is set in Africa and deals with controlling elephant numbers. It left me feeling incredibly sad.

Having said that, it is a collection of short stories which are all very different and very thought-provoking! They will hopefully inspire people to look after this wonderful planet we live on while we can.



I was sent a proof copy by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.