TEHRAN – “A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea”, Masaji Ishikawa’s harrowing true story of life in North Korea, has recently been published in Persian.

Published by Qoqnus Publications, the book has been translated into Persian by Farshad Rezai.

“Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste,” writes Amazon on its website about the book. 

“His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian,” it adds.

“Ishikawa candidly recounts his tumultuous upbringing and the brutal thirty-six years he spent living under a crushing totalitarian regime, as well as the challenges he faced repatriating to Japan after barely escaping North Korea with his life,” it notes.

“A River in Darkness is not only a shocking portrait of life inside the country but a testament to the dignity—and indomitable nature—of the human spirit,” it concludes.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian translation of “A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North” by Masaji Ishikawa.

RM/MMS/YAW