A24’s latest book unpicks the beauty and craft behind Past Lives

“What if this is a past life as well, and we are already something else to each other in our next life? Who do you think we are then?”

Few films capture the ache of ‘what if’ as much as Past Lives. The film follows Nora, a Korean-born New York playwright, who reconnects with her childhood sweetheart Hae Sung after decades apart. A meditation on love, nostalgia, and fate, Celine Song’s 2023 film left many feeling emotionally dishevelled. It’s the kind of film that leaves you staring out of bus windows, revisiting old texts, pondering on the simple question: What might have been?

Two years later, a new screenplay book by A24 unpicks the beauty and craft behind the story. Unfolding across five chapters, the 86-page publication begins with a text by Pulitzer-winning playwright Lynn Nottage. “Past Lives shows us that love can morph into nostalgia, a yearning that is not easily translated – haunting us like the fragile memory of first love that exists as a beacon, an augury, or a precious reminder of who we once were and the difficulty of letting that person go,” she writes. It’s a revealing introduction to Celine Song’s original screenplay – presented in both English and Korean. The book then presents a collection of 24 stills lifted from the film by cinematographer Shabier Kirchner, as well as essays by The New York Times bestselling author Sloane Crosley and New Yorker staff writer Doreen St. Félix.

For the art directors – Actual Source co-founders JP Haynie and Davis Ngarupe, who’ve been designing many of A24’s books of late – it was important for the book to echo the tone and atmosphere of the film. “It’s always interesting to apply physicality to something like a film after it has been released,” the team says. “Viewers are already familiar with the world that Celine Song created, so when we form an impression of what the book can be, we need to make sure it fits within that world but also expands upon it. It should feel familiar but also new.”

Delicate and understated, its design is intentionally subtle to allow space for contemplation. “This felt like the right way to represent this story in print,” the designers say. “We used a single typeface, mostly in one size and weight throughout the book… And a beautiful 16th-century typeface called Garamond that was designed to resemble pen and ink handwriting.”

The book closes with a thoughtful conversation between Celine Song and author Andrew H. In a moving exchange, they explore how Past Lives captures the beauty and fragility of unspoken connections, the emotional weight of paths not taken, and the quiet profundity of being seen – reminding us that every life, and every love, holds its own unique truth.