In 1948 a small town in South Korea was seized by communists. A lowly butcher, enthralled by the idea that the downtrodden could take power, became a ?hero of the people', slaughtering opponents with unrivalled cruelty, all witnessed by his eleven year old son, Kapsu. Now forty and living in Seoul, Kapsu visits the town that he turned his back on twenty-nine years ago. During his stay, he relives his childhood as he visits places and meets people associated with his past. This story is abo...

An occasionally terrifying and always vivid portrayal of what it was like to live as a refugee immediately after the end of the Korean War. This novel is based on the author's own experience in his early teens in Daegu, in 1954, and depicts six families that survive the hard times together in the same house, weathering the tiny conflicts of interest and rivalries that spring up in such close quarters, but nonetheless offering one another sympathy and encouragement as fellow sufferers of th...

A PEN Translates Award-winning collection of short stories about life in North Korea under Kim Jong-Il, written in secret by a dissident author.The Accusation is a revelatory work of fiction that exposes the truth of the North Korean regime. Set during the period of Kim Jong-Il's leadership, the seven stories that make up The Accusation throw light on different aspects of life in this most bizarre and horrifying of dictatorships.One story,...

The acclaimed travel writer chronicles a year of train travel across China in a revealing travelogue that " gives the reader much to relish and think about " ( Publishers Weekly).The author of the train travel classics The Great Railway Bazaar and The Old Patagonian Express, takes to the rails once again in this account of his epic journey through China. The always irascible, infectiousl...

**Originally banned in China but later named one of that nation’s most influential books, a searing novel that portrays one man’s transformation from the spoiled son of a landlord to a kindhearted peasant.“A work of astounding emotional power.” —Dai Sijie, author of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress**From the author of Brothers and China in Ten Words: this celebrated contemporary classic of Chinese literature was also adapted for film by Zh...

Miljenko Jergovic’s remarkable début collection of stories, Sarajevo Marlboro – winner of the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize – earned him wide acclaim throughout Europe. Croatian by birth, Jergovic ? spent his childhood in Sarajevo and chose to remain there throughout most of the war. A dazzling storyteller, he brings a profoundly human, razor-sharp understanding of the fate of the city’s young Muslims, Croats, and Serbs with a subterranean humor and profoundly personal vision. Their off...

A haunting Russian tale about the environmental legacy of the Cold War.Yerzhan grows up in a remote part of Soviet Kazakhstan where atomic weapons are tested. As a young boy he falls in love with the neighbour's daughter and one evening, to impress her, he dives into a forbidden lake. The radioactive water changes Yerzhan. He will never grow into a man. While the girl he loves becomes a beautiful woman.Why Peirene chose to publish this book: 'Like a Grimm's fairy tale, this...

FINALIST FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE • From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of Never Let Me Go, Klara and the Sun and The Remains of the Day.England, 1930s. Christopher Banks is the country’s most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one mystery haunts him: the disappearance of his parents in old Shanghai when he was a boy. Returning to the labyrinthine city of his memory, Banks seeks answers to ...

Mr. Pan is no highly-placed official. Mr. Pan is the Mr. Smith of China—an ordinary man with extraordinary reach—and China, like America, depends as much on its Mr. Pans as on its powerful and world famous officials. Here, in a series of linked vignettes, you'll get a glimpse into a new way of life—Mr. Pan at work, Mr. Pan with his father, Mr. Pan with his docile wife, Pei-yu. It is a rare glimpse into a time and place, as only Emily Hahn's perceptive pen could produce. This is fiction as ...

"Exceedingly creepy . . . The diabolically gifted British author spins a fascinating mystery from the legacy of Japanese atrocities during World War II." — Entertainment WeeklyWith the redolent atmosphere of Ian Rankin and the spine-chilling characters of Thomas Harris, Mo Hayder's The Devil of Nanking takes the reader on an electrifying literary ride from the palatial apartments of yakuza kingpins to deep inside the secret histo...

"An unlikely love story set against the events of the last half-century in China . . . a poetic evocation of the country and its people." — The New York TimesWhen the Kitchen God is challenged by the Jade Emperor to fathom the workings of the human heart, he chooses to trace the lives of Jinyi and his wife, Yuying, from their blossoming love until their old age, in hope of finding an answer. The Kitchen God watches as government strictures split their famil...

A moving and passionate historical fiction novel based on true events of the 1937 Nanking Massacre—now a major motion picture starring Christian Bale.“[A] riveting tale that touches us at the center of our being.” —Amy Tan, New York Times bestselling author of The Joy Luck ClubIt is December 1937, and the Japanese Imperial Army has just entered Nanking. Unable to reach the Safety Zone in Pokou, a group of schoolgirls are h...