To citizens around the world, what goes on above the 38th parallel is largely a mystery. Though there are no questions about the numerous human rights abuses that go on in North Korea – extreme food rationing and hunger, arbitrary violence by the state, the impossibility of traveling past the country’s borders – the daily reality of living through them have gone undocumented. Through years of research, Adam Johnson attempts to convey the very real and existential crises North Koreans face with his new novel. Adam Johnson is author of “The Orphan Master’s Son.” Though the book is fictional, the imagery is rooted in years of research, including a trip to North Korea.
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