Princess Bari (2010) by Hwang Sok-Yong

Book Review

Princess Bari (2010)

by Hwang Sok-Yong

  Hwang Sok-Yong is one of South Korea's most famous novelists.  In 1993 he received world-wide notoriety after he was sentenced to seven years in a South Korean prison for unauthorized travel to North Korea.  Princess Bari is the story of Bari, named after the figure of Korean folklore.  She escapes harrowing circumstances in North Korea, where she is raised near the border with China.  Her father and extended family are significant officials in the local regime, but famine and a politically questionable relation lead to their downfall.  The family scatters, Bari ends up in semi-hiding in China, just over the border, before she manages to escape to London.

   There, the story becomes the familiar tale of the immigrant experience in contemporary London. As far as the second half of the book goes, the part which takes place in London, it is pretty rote- it's only the circumstances which Bari escapes from that make the western set chapters interesting.