Friend - (Weatherhead Books on Asia) by Nam-Nyong Paek (Paperback)

About the Book

Paek Nam-nyong's Friend is a tale of marital intrigue, abuse, and divorce in North Korea. This groundbreaking translation of one of North Korea's most popular writers offers English-language readers a page-turner full of psychological tension as well as a revealing portrait of a society that is typically seen as closed to the outside world.

Book Synopsis

Paek Nam-nyong's Friend is a tale of marital intrigue, abuse, and divorce in North Korea. A woman in her thirties comes to a courthouse petitioning for a divorce. As the judge who hears her statement begins to investigate the case, the story unfolds into a broader consideration of love and marriage. The novel delves into its protagonists' past, describing how the couple first fell in love and then how their marriage deteriorated over the years. It chronicles the toll their acrimony takes on their son and their careers alongside the story of the judge's own marital troubles.

A best-seller in North Korea, where Paek continues to live and write, Friend illuminates a side of life in the DPRK that Western readers have never before encountered. Far from being a propagandistic screed in praise of the Great Leader, Friend describes the lives of people who struggle with everyday problems such as marital woes and workplace conflicts. Instead of socialist-realist stock figures, Paek depicts complex characters who wrestle with universal questions of individual identity, the split between public and private selves, the unpredictability of existence, and the never-ending labor of maintaining a relationship. This groundbreaking translation of one of North Korea's most popular writers offers English-language readers a page-turner full of psychological tension as well as a revealing portrait of a society that is typically seen as closed to the outside world.

Review Quotes

Friend is both a good read and a rare inside look into North Korean culture.-- "Book Riot"

Friend offers a fascinating glimpse into the realities of North Korean life. It reminds us that the people of that country may face hardships, but they also experience the same domestic challenges that afflict humans everywhere.-- "New York Journal of Books"

Friend offers an astute psychological exploration of marriage, the work that goes into such a partnership, and the many ways it could fail us.-- "Minneapolis Star Tribune"

Friend, in this able and very readable translation by Immanuel Kim, is a salutary antidote to the many tomes that purport to explain the DPRK. The North Korea of the novel is--like everywhere else--filled with real people . . . In North Korea, again like everywhere else, life can be a half-empty, half-full proposition. Of course, in our better moments, we know this, but it helps to be reminded.-- "Asian Review of Books"

[In] its portrait of everyday existence, we catch glimpses of life outside of surveillance--squabbles, gossip, divorce. These characters might be under suspicion, and might live in fear, but Friend captures something more--most notably, people who are subject to the boredoms, pleasures, and frustrations of life.-- "Bookforum"

[This book] is fascinating for the demands it makes on readers. Friend is not a breezy work, though it's extremely easy to read, and Kim's translation is lucid and graceful. But not even the clarity of its narrative can make the workings of Paek Nam-nyong's story seem close to the kind of novelistic story we are used to hearing and telling in English. . . Paek's novel [is] the most "foreign" one to enter English in many years.-- "Mumbai Mirror"

[This] story transcends politics, social strictures and unwritten codes with its universal appeal. It can be done, a tale from out of North Korea whose joys and sufferings are readily recognisable. It is to the enormous credit of the author that he can duck and dive what one assumes was censorship of however limited a kind and yet not spoil his tale.-- "RTÉ"

A layered story of family obligations stretched to breaking point . . . Reading Friend is like sifting through a black box for clues into a sealed culture.-- "Times Literary Supplement"

A well-drawn study of a society that is shut-off from the Western world but whose emotional troubles are universal.-- "24stories"

A North Korean version of Marriage Story. . .This novel is so fascinating.-- "Paperback Paris"

An expert at storytelling and craft, Paek shows the family as a small unit that helps preserve the moral fabric of society. . .Readers may be surprised to see how much the characters and their preoccupations resemble novels from other countries, and throughout the book, the equality between genders is striking.-- "The Japan Times"

In its candid examination of domestic conflict and female ambition, Friend unsettles expectations of North Korean life . . . [it] offers a beguiling introduction to the everyday, with none of the rockets and military parades that the words "North Korea" often bring to mind.-- "New York Times Book Review"

In reading Friend, one identifies with its characters and such empathy inoculates readers from 'us versus them' refrains.-- "S/N Korean Humanities"

Named a Best Book of World Literature of 2020-- "Library Journal"

Paek weaves themes of greed, corruption, and self-sacrifice into a subtle, restrained narrative . . . A rare glimpse into an insular world.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

Paek's focus on individuals and family, and his willingness to acknowledge failings, make for a novel that manages to be engaging, and even quite moving, even beyond its context.-- "The Complete Review"

Reading Friend is like meeting a new person when you're blindfolded. You touch their face, tracing their features with your fingertips. You can't quite picture them, but you feel the warmth and texture of their skin.-- "New York Review of Books"

The language in Friend is spare and unadorned and refreshingly clear.-- "CounterPunch"

The American publication of Friend is a monumental achievement and the novel, quite literally, is beyond compare.-- "Asia Media International"

This is a rare find; a full, contemporary North Korean novel. . . The story itself is clever, with current topics, and modern, colloquial-sounding dialogue.-- "Korean Quarterly"

This publication is welcome both in its own right and for the brief but informative afterword by the translator that gives an overview of North Korean literature.-- "London Korean Links"

This tender, witty novel is indeed a page-turner. Neither a searing indictment of the regime nor a propaganda screed, Friend illuminates the personal rather than the political, the daily trials of workplace conflicts and marital woes. In doing so, it sharpens our ability to see the fragility and messy humanity in lives too often obscured by state agendas.-- "The Guardian"

With still so little known about the North Korean people beyond mostly tortuous escapee narratives, Kim enables a rare, welcome glimpse into 'a messy world of human emotions and relationships that is at once entirely alien and eerily familiar.'-- "Booklist, Starred Review"

Friend depicts daily life in North Korean society. The psychology of human relationships evoked in this fascinating novel shows that North Koreans, far from being brainwashed robots, are as fragile as people everywhere--that they too simply want to be happy together, and suffer intensely when things go wrong.--Brother Anthony, Sogang University

The publication of Immanuel Kim's painstaking translation of Paek Nam-nyong's Friend is a significant event. It promises to shift the focus away from those texts that simply confirm our preconceived notions about the DPRK toward a subtler and more informed consideration of literary practices there.--Travis Workman, University of Minnesota

About the Author

Paek Nam-nyong is one of the most renowned writers in North Korea today. He was born in 1949 in Hamhŭng and worked in a steel factory for many years before enrolling at Kim Il Sung University. He worked in the Writer's Union and later joined the elite group of writers called April 15th Literary Production Unit.

Immanuel Kim is Korea Foundation and Kim-Renaud Associate Professor of Korean Literature and Culture Studies at George Washington University. He is the author of Rewriting Revolution: Women, Sexuality, and Memory in North Korean Fiction (2018).