A dark and complex story of the way ideology can destroy the individual, Choi In-hun’s investigation of his country’s partition into two diametrically opposed polities implies both communism and capitalism are pernicious and externally acquired infections.
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Set just before the Korean War, this ground-breaking classic of Korean modernism tackles the shattering effect of Korea’s national division. Following its protagonist as he travels to the North, hoping to escape what he sees as the South’s repressive right-wing regime, it sees him dismayed by an equally destructive adherence to ideology in the so-called worker’s paradise.
A dark and complex story of the way ideology can destroy the individual, Choi In-hun’s investigation of his country’s partition into two diametrically opposed polities implies both communism and capitalism are pernicious and externally acquired infections.
“An exceptional work that offers a new perspective on the Korean War as well as a noteworthy starting point for the third generation of Korean War literature.”
—Koreana
Choi In-hun was born in 1936 in Hoeryong City, North Hamgyong Province, now in North Korea. He studied law at Seoul National University but joined the army without completing his final semester. From 1977 to 2001, he was professor of creative writing at Seoul Institute of the Arts. Author of novels, essays and plays, his work has received numerous awards, including the Dongin Literary Award.