Dr. Immanuel Kim is the translator of the novel Friend by Nam-Nyong Paek and will be joined in conversation with Patricia Park

Paek Nam-nyong’s Friend is a tale of marital intrigue, abuse, and divorce in North Korea. Join translator Immanuel Kim and novelist Patricia Park for a live discussion of this groundbreaking translation of one of North Korea’s most popular writers. A best-seller in North Korea, where Paek continues to live and write, the novel illuminates a side of life in the DPRK that Western readers have never before encountered. The Guardian writes that Friend is a "tender, witty novel.. [that] sharpens our ability to see the fragility and messy humanity in lives too often obscured by state agendas." The New York Times calls Friend a "candid examination of domestic conflict and female ambition, [that] unsettles expectations of North Korean life."