North Korean Archives

The Hard Road Out: One Woman’s Escape from North Korea by Jihyun Park and Seh-lynn Chai, translated by Sarah Baldwin-Beneich [in Booklist]

24 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Korean, Memoir, Nonfiction, North Korean, Repost, Translation

Jihyun Park is a twice-escaped defector. Seh-lynn Chai is initially her hired English translator, then her friend, even sister. “Jihyun is from the North and I am from the South,” Chai writes, “but we share a single identity: we’re both Korean.” At their 2014 first...

Best World Literature 2020 [in Library Journal]

02 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Australian, Australian Asian, Caribbean, European, Fiction, French, Japanese, Korean, North Korean, Persian, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

For three years, I've been reading along with two fabulously erudite co-horts – my Library Journal editor Barbara Hoffert and fellow LJ reviewer Lawrence Olszewski – to recognize and celebrate the best translated world literature. This year, we had well over 100 titles to discuss, debate, negotiate,...

Friend by Nam-nyong Paek, translated by Immanuel Kim [in Booklist]

02 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, North Korean, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW As a Superior Court judge, among Jeong Jin Wu’s most difficult tasks is to resolve divorce petitions and face “the burden of having to deal with another family’s misery.” His latest case involves an opera celebrity and factory worker desperate to terminate their almost-10-year...

Five More to Go: Alice Stephens’ Famous Adopted People [in The Booklist Reader]

02 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Lists, Nonfiction, North Korean, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Famous Adopted People by Alice Stephens “Everyone, it seems, is telling our story but us,” observes Lisa Pearl, the Korean-born, Bethesda, Maryland-raised transracial adoptee protagonist in Alice Stephens’ recent October debut. The author, who describes herself as being “among the first generation of transnational, interracial adoptees,”...

Famous Adopted People by Alice Stephens + Author Interview [in Bloom]

27 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, North Korean, Repost

FAMOUS ADOPTED PEOPLE, A Story “In My Bones”: Q&A with Alice Stephens “Everyone, it seems, is telling our story but us,” observes Lisa Pearl, the Korean-born, Bethesda, Maryland-raised transracial adoptee protagonist in Alice Stephens’ debut novel, Famous Adopted People, which hits shelves on October 16. The author, who describes...

Option Now, Film Soon! [in East Wind ezine]

20 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Indian, Indian American, Korean, Korean American, North Korean, South Asian American, Taiwanese, Taiwanese American, Young Adult Readers

While texting with a (much younger) Korean American friend the other day about meeting at the movies, I gave her two choices: CRA or Searching. I was all giddy on my end, thinking how phenomenally lucky we were to have TWO APA choices, but my...

Famous Adopted People by Alice Stephens [in Booklist]

17 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, North Korean, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW “Everyone, it seems, is telling our story but us,” observes Lisa Pearl, the Korean-born, Bethesda, Maryland-raised transracial adoptee protagonist in Alice Stephens’ debut novel. The author, who describes herself as being “among the first generation of transnational, interracial adoptees,” takes charge with a tale...

A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa, translated by Risa Kobayashi [in Library Journal]

23 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Japanese, Korean, Memoir, Nonfiction, North Korean, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Memoirs by North Korean defectors have proliferated, but Masaji Ishikawa's, originally published in 2000, might be the first available in English translation by a Japanese-born escapee. The Japanese bestseller, I Was Kim Jong Il's Cook (2004), by pseudonymous Kenji Fujimoto, could be the only other...

In the Shadow of the Sun by Anne Sibley O’Brien [in School Library Journal]

03 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Fiction, Korean, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, North Korean, Repost, Young Adult Readers

"Who in their right mind tries to bond with their kids by taking them on a tour of North Korea?'" American aid worker Mark Andrews does when he arrives in Pyongyang with 16-year-old son Simon and 12-year-old daughter Mia. He's convinced "the trip would be...

Ask a North Korean: Defectors Talk about Their Lives Inside the World’s Most Secretive Nation by Daniel Tudor [in Booklist]

08 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, Korean, Nonfiction, North Korean, Repost, Translation

For Western readers, most North Korea-focused titles cover two categories, writes Daniel Tudor, former Korea correspondent for The Economist: politics and “testimony-style books written by defectors who tell horror stories.” What’s missing are “the real daily experiences of the vast majority of the North Koreans”...

10 Diverse Debut Story Collections [in The Booklist Reader]

16 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Arab, Black/African American, British, British Asian, Caribbean, Chinese American, Fiction, Korean, Latina/o/x, Lists, North Korean, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American, Translation

Short-story collection The Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri’s first published book, won the Pulitzer Prize. Phil Klay’s debut collection, Redeployment, got him the National Book Award. Even Tom Hanks got in on the short story game with his debut book, Uncommon Type, out last month. Right now, eyes are...

Meeting with My Brother by Yi Mun-yol, translated by Heinz Insu Fenkl and Yoosup Chang [in Booklist]

30 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, North Korean, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW “The Korean War displaced and fragmented more than ten million families,” writes Heinz Insu Fenkl in his introduction to his new translation of Yi’s novella about the first meeting between two adult brothers. Yi, one of Korea’s most prominent literary figures, and his family were...

Stop North Korea! A Radical New Approach to the North Korean Standoff by Shepherd Iverson

01 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Korean, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, North Korean, Repost

Korean studies professor Shepherd Iverson, who describes his eight-year residency in South Korea as having “gone native,” promises a “monograph ...

The Accusation by Bandi, translated by Deborah Smith [in Booklist]

15 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, North Korean, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Initially published in South Korea in 2014, The Accusation continues to make international history as the first literary work smuggled out of repressive North Korea, now headed for shelves around the world. Bandi – whose pseudonym is derived from firefly, an obvious nod to...

The Boy Who Escaped Paradise by J.M. Lee, translated by Chi-Young Kim [in Library Journal]

13 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, North Korean, Repost, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW "There's magic in this world. And miracles." In his second translated work to hit stateside (after The Investigation), bestselling Korean author J.M. Lee – again linguistically enabled by gifted translator Chi-Young Kim – will make you believe. Lee's silent protagonist sits in a New York...

How I Became a North Korean by Krys Lee [in Library Journal]

08 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, North Korean, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW After the brutal murder of his father and the wrenching separation from his mother and sister, Yongju must survive a new life of deprivation after his privileged upbringing as the only son of one of North Korea’s power elite. Danny, a misfit immigrant teen...

Stars Between the Sun and Moon: One Woman’s Life in North Korea and Escape to Freedom by Lucia Jang with Susan McClelland [in Library Journal]

16 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Korean, Memoir, Nonfiction, North Korean, Repost

Within mere months, four memoirs – including Stars – by North Korean women hit U.S. shelves: Hyeonseo Lee’s The Girl with Seven Names and Eunsun Kim’s A Thousand Miles to Freedom debuted in July; Yeonmi Park’s In Order to Live hit in September; and Stars...

A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator’s Rise to Power by Paul Fischer

13 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Korean, Nonfiction, North Korean

The more I read about North Korea, the more flabbergasted I become that THREE generations of Kim dictators have managed to shutter out most of the world for this long. So tragically epic or utterly preposterous – with little in between – are the limited...

The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Tyrant Who Created North Korea and the Young Lieutenant Who Stole His Way to Freedom by Blaine Harden [in Christian Science Monitor]

19 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Korean, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, North Korean, Repost

'The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot' presents a riveting slice of North Korean history Writing one of the most difficult-to-read books ever – Escape from Camp 14 (2012), about a young man’s harrowing odyssey from North Korea where he was bred as a labor camp slave...

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