Excerpt from Snowglobe by Soyoung Park, Joungmin Lee Comfort, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

The Age of Snowglobe

In the living room, Grandma is sunk in her chair in front of her favorite TV show, a heavy quilt draped over her lap. I look down at the weather ticker scrolling away along the bottom of the screen.

-50°F

That's a three-degree drop from yesterday. A snow-cloud icon trails the temperature, suggesting flurries throughout the day, and Grandma pushes herself out of the chair, shuffling to the electric space heater with the kettle in hand. My brother, Ongi, appears in the living room, wearing his standard morning look: a toothbrush in his mouth and a scowl on his face.

"I wish I were still in school!" he whines, because schools close in temperatures below -50°F.

"Just brush your teeth, please," I respond flatly, which comes out garbled as I'm still brushing mine, and turn back to the TV. As usual, Grandma has it on Channel 60, the station that airs Goh Around round the clock.

"No! Hear me out," Ongi persists, stepping in front of me and ratcheting up the grievance in his voice. "I was sixteen ten months ago when I was in school. I'm still sixteen today, but just because I graduated, I'm now expected to endure this brutal temperature?"

His face is blocking my view of the TV. What does he want me to do about the weather? "Stop spraying toothpaste all over the floor, would you?" I snap, suddenly irritated.

Ongi is my twin brother born exactly ten minutes before me. He likes to pretend to be older and wiser, which is no end of laughable. He should know well by now that I only came second to make sure he got out safely—kind of like a captain being the last one off the ship. I've been taking care of him since we shared a womb.

Grandma, back in her sagging chair, swivels her head in our direction. "Ongi, my sweet," she calls. "Don't act like a baby in front of your girlfriend."

Ongi's eyes bug out, and he races to the kitchen sink, where he spits out the mouthful of foaming toothpaste with extra force.

"Grandma!" he cries. "Jeon Chobahm is not my girlfriend!"

Grandma has dementia, and she's been confusing me with my brother's nonexistent girlfriend for some time now.

I leave Ongi to stew and head back into the bathroom, where I turn on the wall-mounted faucet and fill the tin basin under it. When I scoop up the frigid water and rinse my mouth, the cold sends a shocking jolt through my teeth down to my jawbone, which immediately begins to ache. My hair is next. I'm staring into the basin, steeling myself against the brain-chilling assault to come, when Grandma appears at the door with the kettle in her hand, a plume of steam escaping its spout.

"Watch out, dear," she says, and stoops to carefully tip the kettle over the basin. "I made this hot water for Ongi, but he wants you to have it instead."

I watch as she sticks her hand in the basin and swishes the water around to even out the temperature. Over the rising steam, her face is aglow with pride and joy that her grandson grew up to be such a considerate young person—a true gentleman who knows how to care for his girlfriend. Meanwhile, said young man is washing his hair at the kitchen sink, howling as he dips his head under the frigid stream. I can't help but laugh at his antics as Grandma shuffles back toward the door with the empty kettle.

"Thank you, Grandma," I say.

She stops in her tracks. Turning around slowly, she searches my face for a long moment with her watery eyes.

"You sound just like my granddaughter," she says in a voice full of longing. Then she turns back around and heads out the door for her worn chair.

In the mudroom, Ongi and I struggle to pull on our heavy snow boots. It's made all the more difficult by the layers of insulated clothes—tops, pants, and tights—we have on under our thick snow bibs. Next come out parkas, expedition-weight mittens, and ski masks. Then, finally, the hoods go up, and we're ready.

Excerpted from Snowglobe by Soyoung Park and Joungmin Lee Comfort. Copyright © 2024 by Soyoung Park and Joungmin Lee Comfort. Excerpted by permission of Delacorte Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.