How we endure the long and painful wait with affection and desperation

Despite the fact that South Korea has the lowest birthrate in the world, subfertility clinic Baby Angel Hospital is full of women who long to have a baby. Six women, all in their 30s and 40s, meet at the clinic and eventually create a group chat room named “Hello Baby” to share information and support each other. For two years, the six women each with different background and hardship, bond through group chat, sharing one another’s strenuous clinic process and various circumstances which
make it even harder for them to have a baby.

On Lunar New Year holiday of 2021, one of the chat room members Jung-hyo, who disappeared for a year after declaring that she does not want IVF treatment any more, announces to the group that she has given birth to a baby. The women are envious yet happy for her, as all of them have experienced and understand the longing and desperation that Jung-hyo had been through to meet her baby. To congratulate Jung-hyo, they decide to all gather at Jung-hyo’s home. However, the evening’s
gathering leads to an unexpected turn.

The novel focuses on the different stories of the six women and those around them, highlighting the desperate yearning, efforts, despair, and hope behind subfertility treatments that numerous women goes through, but is hidden behind the joy of pregnancy.

Kim Ui-gyeong
She won the The Korea Economic Daily Annual Youth Spring Literary Contest in 2014 with “Heyday of Youth Bankrupt.” She won 6th Soorim Literary Award with Call Center and published short story collection Showroom and essay collection Season Called Life.