Humans and aliens live in the same universe. Hana, the protagonist of The Only Hana on Earth, is an environmentalist who lives a low-carbon life managing a shop with the idea of recycling used clothing. Kyeong-Min, Hana’s boyfriend of eleven years, heads to Canada to watch a meteor shower and decides to abandon her to wander the universe. In the meantime, an alien creature decides to take Kyeong-Min’s place and travels 20,000 light years to Earth after falling in love with Hana. When her boyfriend comes back with a completely different personality, what will Hana do when her life is upended?

     While the relationship between the two characters is the main topic of this book, there is also a secondary plot following Hana as she heads out to the universe to pursue true love. The two storylines are essentially the same if alien features are not taken into account. Both are about people/beings who give up everything in their search for love.

     Chung allows readers to explore an alien world with bizarre, illusory scenes presented like shifting kaleidoscope images. Chung’s environmentalist ethic is evident in the way she imagines one of the alien species with plant-like traits—it appears human but has vine-like hair that can photosynthesize and fingers that can absorb nutrients from the soil. Perhaps it could be viewed as an environmentally-friendly human evolution that has taken place on another planet.

     Within this science fiction backdrop, the love story becomes romantic and readers will think of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s little prince and his rose. Even between different species we can still feel emotions, share the same values and hold our memories precious. Hana is the rose for Kyeong-Min the alien, and his love for her is based on Hana simply being herself. Despite being a different life form, he does everything for her without hesitation.

     So, what is love for these two characters? If you are faced with a situation where someone who looks like the person you love loves “you,” what would you do? Would you hate a creature that has come all the way to reach you? Would you be able to love him? It really needs time to think over. But why did Hana accept this alien’s love despite her initial suspicion and fear? Because their “understanding with each other was designed, cut and sewn by the universe.” In addition to love, they share the same philosophy, and Hana’s open-minded spirit also plays a large role in accepting the fact that Kyeong-Min is an alien.

     The names in this story are connected to perspectives about love. Hana’s former boyfriend, Kyeong-Min, is now called “X” after his return because the name “Kyeong-Min” is reserved for the person she has always loved. Therefore, in her opinion, a name is not simply a name, but something more precious that can contain love, hate or any other feeling for the other person. Perhaps names in The Only Hana on Earth are similar to the way names are understood in Kim Chunsu’s famous poem “Flower”:

     Until I spoke his name,

     He had been

     no more than a mere gesture

     When I spoke his name,

     he came to me and became a flower.

  Even the heroine’s name “Hana,” which in Korean sounds just like “one” or “unique,” is used to express the deep love between these characters: “You are the only one for me.” This is a heart-warming SF love story, which contains different kinds of love. We can find love between lovers, love toward human beings, and a wider kind of love toward the earth, aliens and the whole universe. When communication expands beyond people on earth, the scenes in this book may provide a glimpse of what such interactions might look like between different life forms across the universe.

Yu Hsin Hsin

Translator, Winner of the 2022 LTI Korea Translation Award