River in the dark

Author: Masagi Ishikawa

Number of pages: 192

A harrowing true story about a man's life in North Korea and his subsequent escape. Masagi Ishikawa, Korean on his father's side and Japanese on his mother's side, has lived his entire life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea, when Ishikawa was only thirteen years old, and he was unwillingly placed in the lowest social class. His father, a Korean, was lured to the new communist country by promises of work, education for his children, and a high position in society. But the reality of their lives was far from utopia. In this autobiography, Ishikawa candidly recounts his troubled upbringing, the harsh thirty-six years he spent living under an overwhelming totalitarian regime, and the challenges he faced upon returning to Japan after narrowly escaping North Korea. River in the Dark is not only a shocking depiction of life in the country, but it is also a testament to the sublimity and indomitable nature of the human spirit.