Friend: A Novel from North Korea
SynopsisPlot
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.
Story
About this book
Paek Nam-nyong's Friend follows a woman in her thirties who arrives at a North Korean courthouse seeking a divorce. The judge assigned to her case begins looking into the circumstances behind the petition, and the narrative gradually opens up to trace the couple's history. It moves between the early days of their relationship, when they first fell in love, and the slow breakdown of their marriage over the years that followed.
As the investigation continues, the novel examines the effects of the couple's conflict on their young son and on their professional lives. In a parallel thread, the judge handling the case faces difficulties in his own marriage, a detail that complicates his perspective on the dispute before him. The story treats questions of love, loyalty, and domestic abuse within the specific social structures of the DPRK, where legal and community mechanisms around divorce carry their own particular weight.
The book was originally a bestseller in North Korea, where Paek continues to live and write. Its English translation introduced readers outside the country to a domestic novel set in a society whose everyday literary culture is rarely accessible abroad. The focus on ordinary personal struggles rather than political spectacle sets it apart from most writing about North Korea that reaches Western audiences.
