The bonds between six women undergoing IVF are tested when one announces an unexpected birth in this absorbing, candid novel about what women endure to become mothers
Outside the chat, they had different jobs, personalities, financial backgrounds, but inside, they were all mothers-to-be anxiously awaiting their babies.
At a fertility clinic in Seoul, six women in their thirties and forties become friends. To comfort one another while undergoing IVF, they create the group chat "Hello Baby." Over the course of two years, they share personal stories on their way to motherhood, until one, forty-six-year-old Jung-hyo, suddenly announces she has stopped treatment and disappears from the friend group. But after a year of silence, on Lunar New Year, she drops a text in the chat with the news that she recently gave birth to a baby girl. She invites the group over to celebrate her daughter’s birth. With a mix of envy and admiration, the women gather, but their doubts and suspicions threaten a friendship already stressed by uncertainty.
Switching between the six characters—a journalist, a police officer, a vet, a lawyer, and two housewives—this thought-provoking novel explores the social pressure and emotional strain on women struggling to conceive. Written with insight, humor, and great empathy, Hello Baby is a moving portrait of what it means to be a woman today and the lengths some will go to seek motherhood.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Outside the chat, they had different jobs, personalities, financial backgrounds, but inside, they were all mothers-to-be anxiously awaiting their babies.
At a fertility clinic in Seoul, six women in their thirties and forties become friends. To comfort one another while undergoing IVF, they create the group chat "Hello Baby." Over the course of two years, they share personal stories on their way to motherhood, until one, forty-six-year-old Jung-hyo, suddenly announces she has stopped treatment and disappears from the friend group. But after a year of silence, on Lunar New Year, she drops a text in the chat with the news that she recently gave birth to a baby girl. She invites the group over to celebrate her daughter’s birth. With a mix of envy and admiration, the women gather, but their doubts and suspicions threaten a friendship already stressed by uncertainty.
Switching between the six characters—a journalist, a police officer, a vet, a lawyer, and two housewives—this thought-provoking novel explores the social pressure and emotional strain on women struggling to conceive. Written with insight, humor, and great empathy, Hello Baby is a moving portrait of what it means to be a woman today and the lengths some will go to seek motherhood.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
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