Library Journal / November 30, 2020

Paek, Nam-nyong. Friend: A Novel from North Korea. Columbia Univ. tr. from Korean by Immanuel Kim. ISBN 9780231195607. Two unhappy couples eventually reconcile, and Paek’s story triumphs despite a conventional ending. Officially sanctioned by the North Korean government and often offering subtly deployed propaganda, this work is especially valuable for affording a rare glimpse into everyday life under the totalitarian regime. (...)

Star Tribune / April 24, 2020

Rarely do Americans have the chance to read the literature of North Korea. That changed in 2017 with the publication of “The Accusation” by Bandi, a pseudonymous writer whose stories were smuggled out of his home country. Yet though Bandi’s stories give insight into life in North Korea, it’s notable that his works were never published in North Korea and not read by North Koreans. What do North Koreans read? And what do we miss by not reading literature published inside the isolated country?

The New York Times / May 05, 2020

The Print / May 14, 2020

New Delhi: A tale exploring love, marriage and divorce — North Korean author Paek Nam-nyong’s Friend has become the “first state-sanctioned novel to be available to English readers”, according to The Guardian.

BOOK RIOT / May 22, 2020

For this month’s independent press round-up, I’m happy to recommend five novels from around the world, including three in translation. These novels span the globe: they will take you to Spain, Guadeloupe, Mali, Paris, North Korea, New York City, and Appalachia. They are set in boarding schools, small towns, Caribbean Islands, and busy cities.

NKnews / March 25, 2020

“Friend” by Paek Nam Nyong and translated by Immanuel Kim is out in May. You can pre-order it here. A good book is a precious thing in North Korea. In a society where propaganda is omnipresent in every other form of media, books offer their readers a form of escape between the lines, an oblique hinterland of interpretation that the regime might shape, but cannot truly define. They are also one of the only forms of entertainment untethered to the country’s unreliable electricity grid.

IlPostLibri / May 21, 2020

Friend (titolo originale 벗) è il primo romanzo scritto in Corea del Nord approvato dal regime a essere pubblicato da una casa editrice statunitense. È uscito a maggio per la Columbia University Press, nella traduzione di Immanuel Kim, professore di Letteratura coreana alla George Washington University.

Thể thao văn hóa / May 09, 2020

Triều Tiên vẫn luôn thu hút thế giới và không ít người tò mò về các tác phẩm văn học của Bình Nhưỡng. Tiểu thuyết Người bạn của nhà văn Paek Nam Nyong có lời giới thiệu đầy hấp dẫn về cuộc sống hằng ngày của người Triều Tiên, không hề có tên lửa và diễu hành quân sự nào.

Counter Punch / May 29, 2020

I can still recall the early morning cab ride I took many years ago in Daegu, South Korea. I was in a hurry, as usual; too much soju and kimchi the night before. On my way to the hagwan for the morning portion of my day-night split shift to teach EFL to busy university-aged students cramming in some English idioms seemingly between classes. It was the loneliest cab ride I’ve ever taken. No English spoken; I pointed to a map. The interior a shrine of talismans lit by a black light, a weird Wurlitzer melody and a voice of sorrow coming from the tape player, like an oriental version of “In Heaven” from David Lynch’s Eraserhead. Speaking of hung over idioms.

Guardian / May 06, 2020

Exploring love, marriage and divorce, and later adapted for TV, Friend became a bestseller when it was published in 1988 in North Korea. It is now the first state-sanctioned novel available to English readers. Novels are wildly popular in North Korea, but the translations that reach us tend to be by dissidents or defectors. Paek Nam-nyong, a household name in the DPRK, is neither.