A River in Darkness, Masaji Ishikawa
A River in Darkness, Masaji Ishikawa
21 Rating(s)
List: $35.99 | Sale: $25.20
Club: $17.99

A River in Darkness
One Man's Escape from North Korea

Author: Masaji Ishikawa, Risa Kobayashi, Martin Brown

Narrator: Brian Nishii

Unabridged: 4 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Published: 01/01/2018


Synopsis

A New York Times bestseller and Amazon Charts Most Read and Most Sold book.A Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Memoir & Autobiography.The harrowing true story of one man’s life in—and subsequent escape from—North Korea, one of the world’s most brutal totalitarian regimes.Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji 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. 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.In this memoir translated from the original Japanese, 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. 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.

About Masaji Ishikawa

Born in 1947 in Kawasaki, Japan, Masaji Ishikawa moved with his parents and three sisters to North Korea in 1960 at the age of thirteen, where he lived until his escape in 1996. He currently resides in Japan.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily May on November 29, 2018

Serfdom is freedom. Repression is liberation. A police state is a democratic republic. And we were “the masters of our own destiny.” And if we begged to differ, we were dead. This is one powerful little memoir. It's a true story that sounds like dystopian fiction - for most of us, it is difficult......more

Goodreads review by Pakinam on April 01, 2025

"يتحدث الناس عن الله، ورغم أنني لا أراه بنفسي، ما زلت أصلِّي من أجل نهاية سعيدة.." بس هو مفيش نهاية سعيدة في هذا الكتاب المؤلم! نهر في الظلام كتاب مستوحي من قصة حقيقية عاشها الكاتب ماساجي إيشيكاوا الذي انتقل وهو بعمر الثالثة عشرة مع والديه وشقيقاته الثلاث إلى كوريا الشمالية عام 1960 التي تقع تحت نظام......more

Goodreads review by Fatma Al Zahraa on May 02, 2025

"إنك لا تختار أن تولد، بل تولد فحسب" لا أجد ما أقوله سوى التعجب من الحياة المأساوية التي عاشتها كل الشعوب التي وقعت تحت نظام الحكم الشيوعي. وعلى جهلي بتلك النظام، فما أعرفه أنه نظام قام بالأساس لإرساء قواعد العدل والمساواة بين الناس. فلماذا إذن تحول ذلك الحلم لكابوس؟ قراءة مؤلمة لحياة عبثية لا مجال في......more

Goodreads review by Debra on July 27, 2021

It is absolutely heartbreaking to know that this book is one man's true story of living in and escaping from North Korea. Horrible to know that these things happen. in today’s world this is still occurring in North Korea. Masaji Ishikawa is half-Japanese, half-Korean. He never felt like he belonged......more


Quotes

“A terrifying true story of life in North Korea…Told in simple prose, this is a shocking and devastating tale of a country’s utter contempt for its citizens.” Kirkus Reviews“In his achingly straightforward memoir, Ishikawa vividly describes the horrendous conditions that the tyrannical and cultish state inflicts on its people…Ishikawa relates his painful story with sardonic humor and unwavering familial love even in the depths of despair, making human the often impersonal news coverage of mysterious and threatening North Korea.” Booklist (starred review)“Like Kang Chol-hwan’s The Aquariums of Pyongyang (2001)—the book that spurred President George W. Bush’s commitment to helping the people of North Korea—Mr. Ishikawa’s…descriptions of North Korean poverty are chilling, as are his accounts of the corruption and repression that dominated every aspect of life there…searing, swiftly paced.” Wall Street Journal