Snowglobe (Delacorte, Feb. 27) is a riveting work of speculative fiction set in a frozen dystopian world. Soyoung Park’s 16-year-old protagonist, Jeon Chobahm, is a denizen of a climate-ravaged society where the temperature hovers at -50F. For Chobahm and her fellow citizens, extreme cold dictates every moment of their lives. The only respite in their bleak existence is entertainment TV broadcast from Snowglobe, a city enclosed by a large glass dome and the only warm place left on Earth. The cost of living in Snowglobe? Having your life broadcast 24/7 on reality TV to the open world. And indeed, when Chobahm is invited to Snowglobe, she discovers that the glamorous lives of the elite Snowglobe residents are not all that they appear.

This utterly absorbing book, translated from Korean by Joungmin Lee Comfort and the first in a projected duology, is currently being adapted for a film by the producers of Parasite. Soyoung Park corresponded with us by email from her home in South Korea; her responses have been edited for length and clarity.

How did you decide to write fiction, and what drew you to write for teens in particular?

I’ve been full of imagination my whole life. As far back as middle school, I dreamed of becoming a worldwide bestselling novelist. But it was hard to find any Korean literature that had made a global impact. I thought I needed to learn English to write books, and I went to the United States in high school as an exchange student. Being a stranger abroad taught me a lot, and I became a “realistic dreamer”—I decided that working as a journalist would help me become a better writer in the long run. However, I soon realized that if I was investing this much effort, time, and energy into creating stories, I might as well become a writer. Ten years after my time in the U.S., this realization led me to quit my job, and I returned to my journey chasing my dream.

And yes, Snowglobe is a YA novel, but I didn’t write it just for teens. I simply wanted to write an entertaining adventure that included elements of everything I like, and it turned out to fall into the YA genre. I loved Chobahm, the main character, for her pure mind that can be misled as well as her great courage in correcting her mistakes. I don’t think these qualities are exclusive to teenagers, but the story would have been very different if Chobahm were in her 20s.

Reading about the worlds you’ve created—the open world and the Snowglobe world—is such an immersive experience.

I wanted to create the biggest reality show studio ever, which in the book is called Snowglobe because of its see-through hemisphere dome. And a city that size needs a big cast. But it wouldn’t make sense for people to give up their privacy 24/7 for nothing, so I decided to make the open world a super-cold place, like a constant brutal winter with an average annual temperature of -50°F. Snowglobe is the sole warm city in the world, and that gives people a strong incentive to sign up as Snowglobe actors, even if it means giving up their privacy. The harsh outside conditions, too, made the lifestyle of people outside Snowglobe unique and interesting to describe.

You weave themes of personal identity and socioeconomic inequity together in a fascinating and original way.

The self cannot exist without others, and in the modern day there are far too many other people online shaping our own perceptions of self, our emotions, and our lives. It’s getting harder to be how I am without constantly comparing myself to other people. I wanted to write about this issue in Snowglobe because my eternal theme in writing is personal identity. Additionally, I believe socioeconomic inequity is one of the most important factors in shaping a person’s identity, so I couldn’t create a world without accounting for that.

I like what you say about the self not existing in a vacuum, and that our constant comparisons to others are significant in shaping who we are. In what ways do you think that our online lives have accelerated this trend, for better or for worse? Is there anything positive about constantly watching other people’s lives—for escape, for distraction, for entertainment?

Every human wants to be seen, recognized, and cared for while finding a way toward self-expression. Social media helps people fulfill these desires and makes us feel connected with each other in a convenient way. But we easily forget that social media is also media. Media is edited content, which means we see an edited version of others on social media. That’s why we may feel like everyone’s lives are happy except for our own. I love the phrase “Don’t compare your own behind-the-scenes with others’ highlights.” As long as we keep that dictum in mind, social media can be a handy entertainment tool.

Although your characters have Korean names, there isn’t anything explicitly Korean about the setting or characters. How did you decide to make that choice?

Snowglobe’s location is somewhere in Korea during the new glacier era, and Chobahm lives on the Korean Peninsula. That’s why lots of characters have Korean names. But it’s after the chaos from climate change has erased national boundaries, so people in the book identify themselves as a member of the community they live in, not by nationality.

What’s your writing process?

When I work on a story, I typically write the same amount every day once I get on the right track. My biggest obstacle is dealing with the stress of filling a blank space with something that has never before existed. For an easy slide into my work, I start with editing what I wrote the day before. (Warning: Do not try to edit it perfectly; it’s just for warm-up.) While working, I play Friends on my iPad. With six adorable friends on my desk, I don’t feel alone during my solitary work. (Caution: Most writers do not watch a show while they write!) At the end of the workday, I leave myself a rough storyline to work on the next day. It helps me not to worry about the next day’s work while I’m in bed.

What was your greatest motivation in writing Snowglobe?

When I said before that my dream was to become a worldwide bestselling novelist, I didn’t mean that I wanted to be all that famous or rich. My goal was to entertain as many people as possible with my story. I knew how imagination and story can make us happy, and I wanted to share that wonderful feeling with others.

I feel so fortunate. Recently, I feel like my dreams are coming true, with Snowglobe being translated into 10 languages to reach global readers. There was a time when I thought I had to actually write a book in another language to achieve my dream. Now I know I don’t need to do that. (It’s so enjoyable to see the characters translated into English, thanks to Joungmin Lee Comfort’s amazing translation work. Each character feels so fresh and new.) You don’t need to change yourself into something you are not—this is what Snowglobe tells you.

Christine Gross-Loh is the author of Parenting Without Borders and The Path.