A River in Darkness : : one Man's Escape From North Korea

Locations
Call Number: 306.09 Is, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Ishikawa, Masaji
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	306.09 Is	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Ishikawa, Masaji	4-week checkout	Due 05-25-2024

Previously published in Japan in 2000. Translated from Japanese by Risa Kobayashi and Martin Brown. First published in English by AmazonCrossing in 2017.
"Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian. A memoir translated from the original Japanese, Ishikawa candidly recounts his tumultuous upbringing and the brutal thirty-six years he spent living under a crushing totalitarian regime, as well as the challenges he faced repatriating to Japan after barely escaping North Korea with his life." -- Publisher's description

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Heart breaking and educational submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on August 7, 2018, 6:25pm A straightforward memoir by a half-Korean, half-Japanese man who was born and lived his early life in Japan, but was then lured with his family to North Korea, this gut-wrenching book will break your heart. The poverty and despair of life in North Korea can only be imagined, and Ishikawa spent 36 years fighting for enough to eat for himself and his family, and dignity to have a life. He finally escaped, and continues to fight to free his family. Heart breaking and educational.