Land of Tears

Description

Land of Tears

• Author: Park Sang-Seek
• Translator: Inyoung Choi
• Order No. 1155
• ISBN-13: 9781622460496
• ISBN-10:  1622460499
• Binding: Paperback
• Publisher: Homa & Sekey Books
• Pub Year: 2018
• Language: English
• Size: 6 x 9
• Page: 304
• Price: $19.95. You pay only $15.96 (after 20% discount).

About the Book

Land of Tears by Park Sangseek is an anthology of short stories about the Korean experience, yet are universal. The collection is about the period of 1950 to 1962, the time after Liberation from the Japanese and the Korean War, except for two stories. This was an era of poverty and mental and physical anguish.

In these stories, Park poses the following two central questions: What does it mean to be human? How can one discover the basic nature of a person? The author believes that there are two good ways in which these two questions can be elucidated. One is to place people in an extreme situation and observe how they behave. Park examines his thesis by asking: How do people act when they have seized political power? How do they respond when they have come face to face with death? How does a person behave when he is about to die of starvation? What consequences do wars and revolutions bring about? The author endeavors to better understand those fundamental questions of human existence by way of the human actions in the most extreme circumstances, in each of the stories.

About the Author 

Park Sang-Seek received a B.A. in English from Seoul National University, a B.A. in political science from Amherst College, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

He taught in the U.S. for ten years before he returned to South Korea in 1979. He worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Institute of Foreign Affairs as Dean of Research and Chancellor for ten years. He also served as Consul General, Ambassador to UNESCO and to Singapore. He retired from the Foreign Ministry in 2000. After retirement, he served as Rector of the Institute of Peace Studies, Kyung Hee University.

About the Translator 

Inyoung Choi is a translator and artist who studied comparative literature and fine arts in the USA. She has translated many works of Korean literature and art for over twenty-five years.

Table of Contents

Translator's Note

1. Song of Devotion            
2. The Valley of the Shadow of Death        
3. The Journal of a North Korean Soldier
4. A Wife of a Partisan
5. Life            
6. Death in the Cathedral
7. The Blazing Thorn
8. Mermaid                    
9. The Wings of Icarus
10. Thicker Than Blood
11. The Shack    
12. Debt
13. The Medal                    
14. The Legend of Lake Rotorua             
15. The Forest Protection Act, the Old Woman and Special News
16. Law of Cause and Effect                 
17. The Pillar
18. The Evader      
19. The Seven Shadows    
20. A Dream of the Gray Zone
21. The Pigeon and the Coin