The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea
SynopsisPlot
Set during the period of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il's leadership, the seven stories that make up The Accusation give voice to people living under this most bizarre and horrifying of dictatorships. The characters of these compelling stories come from a wide variety of backgrounds, from a young mother living among the elite in Pyongyang whose son misbehaves during a political rally, to a former Communist war hero who is deeply disillusioned with the intrusion of the Party into everything he holds dear, to a husband and father who is denied a travel permit and sneaks onto a train in order to visit his critically ill mother. Written with deep emotion and writing talent, The Accusation is a vivid depiction of life in a closed-off one-party state, and also a hopeful testament to the humanity and rich internal life that persists even in such inhumane conditions.
Story
About this book
The Accusation gathers seven short stories written under the pen name Bandi, by an author reported to be still living inside North Korea at the time of publication. The manuscript was carried secretly into South Korea and published there and abroad. The stories are set during the years when Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il held power.
The characters come from different levels of society. One story centers on a young mother in Pyongyang whose child acts out during a political rally. Another follows a former war hero grown disillusioned as the Party reaches into every corner of his life. A third tracks a father denied a travel permit who boards a train illegally to reach his critically ill mother. Elsewhere a woman struggles to feed her husband during the famine years.
Across the seven pieces, the collection shows how state control shapes decisions as small as a train trip or a child's outburst. Bandi's pen name means firefly in Korean, and the stories were composed and carried out of the country in secrecy. The author's real identity has not been made public.
