Three siblings. Two human, one robot. The spectacular new debut about what it means to be alive.

In a recently reunified Korea, robots have integrated seamlessly into society. They are our teachers, our bus drivers and policemen. They are our lovers. They are even our children. 

Eleven-year-old Ruijie sifts through scrap metal in a Seoul junkyard, searching for anything that might repair her failing body. There amongst the piles of junk she happens across a robot boy: lifelike, strange and unlike anything she's seen before. 

Across the city, estranged siblings Jun and Morgan Cho haven't spoken since the abrupt disappearance of their robot brother Yoyo, which shattered their childhoods and left a gaping hole in their lives. But Ruijie's discovery is about to bring the lives of brother and sister hurtling back together, forcing them to confront the reality of Yoyo's true nature, and the dark purpose their father never revealed. 

At once a dazzling work of speculative fiction and a poignant family drama, Luminous is a timely, unforgettable story about what it really means to be human. 

Review

'Wildly and, yes, luminously emotional.' Matt Haig, author of The Midnight Library

'A spectacular debut, taking place in a thoroughly imagined, vividly written future. Harrowing but full of heart, a work of enormous ambition and brilliance with an ending that fully justifies the title and brought me to tears.' Karen Joy Fowler

'Searching and masterful, Park's Luminous engrossed me completely. Each broken robot, child, and warrior takes the elusive promise of family to a whole new level. I was honestly blown away.' Sierra Greer, author of Annie Bot

'Luminous is warm, expansive, and particular. Park renders the intersection between family and technology with wit and philosophical depth, but ultimately this is just incredibly exciting to read. It's utterly beautiful.' Raven Leilani, author of Luster

'It's beautifully written and wonderful on what it means to be human. I loved it.' Daily Mail

'Inventive, rollicking, and poetic, Luminous is a future classic novel about robots that reveals itself to be profoundly, beautifully human.' Juhea Kim, author of Beasts of a Little Land

'Luminous is full of complex characters, damaged and broken and beautiful. It's a novel full of pleasures, big and small, gorgeous sentences from which Park weaves a rich, layered story of family and work, of history and speculation, of Korea, past, present and future.' Charles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown

'It's a cold stunner of a novel. Park masterfully balances complex characters in a very creative world. The family dynamics in this future-tinged novel are brilliantly written.' Debutiful, 'Most Anticipated Debut Books of 2025'

'Extraordinary…set in a not-too-distant future, debut novelist Silvia Park's Luminousgloriously explores the unpredictable, fading lines between man and machine.' Shelf Awareness

'With Ishiguro-esque precision, Park dissects sentience and reality, as well as love and death... Lustrous.' Publishers Weekly

'A well-crafted take on the vagaries of memory and what it means to be human, with a satisfying investigative backbone.' Booklist

'A United Korea in the nearish future is the setting for Silvia Park’s deeply human take on artificial life.' CrimeReads

'Park creates a vivid, detailed world with intriguing, multi-layered characters… You get moments of exquisite emotional fragility and captivating metaphors. These are robots with dreams way beyond electric sheep.' SFX

'What Park does well is explore the interface and boundary between human and artificial, with several of her characters effectively cyborgs to the extent we're not even certain to begin with if one character, Yoyo, is human or robot…. Compared, for example, with Kazuro Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun, Luminous gives us a significantly better and more interesting exploration of the human implications of this complex technological concept.' Pop Science

About the Author

Silvia Park grew up in Seoul and has spent most of her life in Korea. She received her BA from Columbia and her MFA from NYU, in addition to completing the Clarion Workshop in 2018 on the George R.R. Martin “Sense of Wonder” Fellowship. Her short fiction has been published in Black Warrior Review, Joyland and Tor.com, nominated for a Pushcart and reprinted in the 2019 Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy.