The Boy Who Escaped Paradise
Page 20
It’s getting dark in the square. Stores are turning on their lights, making old metal signs shine. It started raining, and it smells like dirt. It has been 12,814 seconds since you left—3 hours, 33 minutes, and 26 seconds.
Yong-ae is standing in front of me. “Sorry. I know you’ve been waiting forever.”
I put down my pen and kiss her on the cheek. She puts an arm around my shoulder, looking abashed. “I had too much to do. I decided to go get my hair done and then go shopping. I bought these diamond earrings and this ruby necklace at Tiffany’s, and then got these heels, and stopped by to get my nails done.”
“You don’t need all that to look nice,” I tell her.
“Shall we go?” Yong-ae asks.
“Where?”
“Let’s go to the nicest hotel in this town.” She steps down onto the wet pavement and waves her hand.
A black taxi slides up like a large, gentle animal. She beckons to me. I run over and get in the car with her.
“Bellevue Palace Hotel, please,” she says.
We have nowhere to go, but tonight we will stay in this city.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Many people helped me, both directly and indirectly, in writing this book. My deepest respect goes to the defectors from the North, whose strong passion for life and dedication to seeking freedom prevailed despite their many hardships.
During the writing process, I consulted various records authored by defectors who settled in South Korea, as well as hundreds of writings and memoirs posted online by the defector community. These sources helped make my story more detailed. Total Control Zone by Ahn Myong Chol, The Aquariums of Pyongyang by Kang Chol-hwan, and The Hidden Gulag by David Hawk informed my understanding of the conditions in the political prison camps. Choi Jin-yi’s The Woman Who Crossed the Border Three Times inspired the storyline about underground Christianity in the North.
I consulted various books about math and science, including Kasuga Masahito’s How Was the Poincare Conjecture, A 100-Year Unsolved Question, Solved and I. Bernard Cohen’s The Triumph of Numbers: How Counting Shaped Modern Life. Douglas Hofstadter’s Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid was immensely helpful in building the overall structure of the novel, and Bruce Schechter’s My Brain Is Open: The Mathematical Journeys of Paul Erdos gave inspiration for Gil-mo’s trajectory.
Gil-mo’s experiences in the United States are indebted to the following: Steve Donahue’s Shifting Sands: A Guidebook for Crossing the Deserts of Change gave important inspiration for imagining Gil-mo’s crossing into the United States; reporter Ahn Yun Seok’s personal blog, Ahn Yun Seok’s Pyongyang Report, and reporter Song Gyong-hwa’s Hankyore series about defectors’ American dreams helped me envision the life of North Korean refugees in the United States. I also referred to various photographs of areas and people within North Korea, interviews with North Korean citizens and defectors, and documentaries about defection. I am grateful to countless people who are too numerous to mention here.
ALSO BY J. M. LEE
THE INVESTIGATION
THE BOY WHO ESCAPED PARADISE
Pegasus Books Ltd
148 West 37th Street, 13th Floor
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2016 by J. M. Lee
Translated from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim
First Pegasus Books hardcover edition December 2016
Interior design by Sabrina Plomitallo-González, Pegasus Books
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ISBN: 978-1-68177-252-3
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