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Hello Baby
- Author
- Kim Eui-kyung
- Narrator
- Rosa Escoda
- Publisher
- HarperCollins Publishers
- Publish Date
- 28 July 2026
- Run Time
- 4 hours 30 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
‘Illuminating … beautifully drawn’ 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.
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.
Critics Review
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‘A gripping and intimate portrait of motherhood, fertility and womanhood’ Irish Examiner
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‘This thought-provoking novel explores the social pressure and emotional strain put on women struggling to conceive’ The Millions
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‘Astute … Kim conveys the difficult and sometimes baffling realities of infertility with a mix of levity and blunt honesty. This resonates’ Publishers Weekly
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‘Eui-Kyung brings the world a much-needed and empathetic story about the yearning, fear, and hope that comes with navigating infertility. This slim novel packs a remarkably resonant punch’ The Chicago Review of Books
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'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 … this novel illuminates the essentiality of female friendship and mutual support through it all. I loved it' Anna Hogeland, author of The Long Answer
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‘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
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‘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
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‘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
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Kim Eui-kyung
- Narrator
- Rosa Escoda
- Duration
- 4 hours 30 minutes
- Release Date
- 28 July 2026
- ISBN
- 9780008715045
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- HarperCollins Publishers
- Genre
- Fiction in translation, Family life fiction / Stories about family, Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general
Synopsis
‘Illuminating … beautifully drawn’ 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. 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.
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