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    Princess Bari
    Princess Bari
    Princess Bari
    Ebook247 pages5 hours

    Princess Bari

    By Hwang Sok-yong

    4/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A modern-day quest novel from one of Korea’s most renowned novelists.

    Princess Bari tells the story of a young girl, frail and brave, who escapes from famine and death in North Korea in the 1990s. Seeking refuge in China before crossing oceans in the hold of a cargo ship, she disembarks in London, with its bewildering mix of cultures, religions, and languages.

    In this foreign city, Bari finds work as a masseuse — but she doesn’t just heal the body, she also comforts souls, having learnt from her beloved grandmother to read the pain and nightmares of others. Alone and in a strange land, Bari will have to fight, through pain and deepening sadness, to find love and the will to stay alive.  

    With Princess Bari, Hwang Sok-yong entwines an old Korean myth, which tells of an abandoned princess travelling to the ends of the earth to find the elixir of life that will bring peace to the souls of the dead, with the ethereal and haunting backdrop of the modern world.

    PRAISE FOR HWANG SOK-YONG

    ‘Drawing on an old Korean folktale about a princess on a quest and intertwining it with modern life in China and London, Sok-yong chronicles Bari’s journey in an enchanting style that explores Korean culture, beautifully balances reality with magic, and presents an immigrant's perspective of the world.’ Yen Magazine

    ‘An evocative, modern-day quest from one of Korea's most renowned novelists … a story of the search for home and a timely, surreal reminder of the cost of war and the desperate measures people will take to escape.’ BMA Magazine

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherScribe Publications
    Release dateMay 27, 2015
    ISBN9781925113730
    Princess Bari
    Author

    Hwang Sok-yong

    Hwang Sok-yong was born in 1943 and is arguably Korea’s most renowned author. In 1993, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for an unauthorised trip to the North to promote exchange between artists in the two Koreas. Five years later, he was released on a special pardon by the new president. The recipient of Korea’s highest literary prizes, he has been shortlisted for the Prix Femina Etranger and was awarded the Emile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature for his book At Dusk. His novels and short stories are published in North and South Korea, Japan, China, France, Germany, and the United States. Previous novels include The Ancient Garden, The Story of Mister Han, The Guest, and The Shadow of Arms.

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    Reviews for Princess Bari

    4/5

    26 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I received Princess Bari from the early reviewers library thing program. It was recently translated from Korean to English. It follows Bari, a North Korean girl as she grows up in the 90s along the Korean/chinese border. As one of 7 girls her family goes through a lot of hardship including when Bari is smuggled to England by human traffickers. Much of the book centers around her clairvoyant gifts through dreams. I tend to skim these kinds of passages but it is such a big part of the book I had to pay attention more. It flirts on the edge of magical realism (not my thing), but nothing out of the ordinary happens because of her dreams. I appreciated getting a better understanding of the tensions between North Korea and China through their day-to-day lives as well as how Bari makes her new life in England a success.
    • 4/5
      Several of Hwang Sok-Yong's works have now been translated into English (with more to come), but Hwang's novel Princess Bari is the first that I have had the opportunity to read. However, considering the strength of the novel and the deep impression it left, I do suspect that it won't be the last of the author's works that I'll pick up.Princess Bari follows the life of Bari, a young woman born in North Korea who escapes to China as a child and who is later smuggled into England. In part, the novel is also a sort of contemporary re-imagining of the Korean myth of Princess Bari. The story of Bari's legendary namesake both parallels and is entwined with her own. I particularly appreciated this incorporation of mythology into the narrative structure and framework of the novel as a whole as well as in its smaller details.Princess Bari is an engrossing read, but it is certainly not a light one. Bari's life and the lives of so many of those around her are filled with tragedy. Hwang doesn't shy away from portraying the unfairness, misery, and suffering present in the modern world. The novel is a well-crafted and compelling work, but it can be very hard-hitting as well.
    • 4/5
      I think this book is a translation, but my copy has no info on a translator or it being translated. The author is a very well-known and highly regarded Korean author, so I wouldn't expect him to be writing in English, but no info???———This novel brings the old Korean legend of Princess Bari--"an abandoned princess traveling to the ends of the Earth to find the elixir that will bring peace to the souls of the dead"--into the modern world. I am unfamiliar with the traditional tale, though now I really want to read some version of it. I enjoy these types of novels (The Snow Child is another).I enjoyed this story, it seems so far-fetched, yet I know it really is not. The famine in North Korea was real. People do survive being smuggled on container ships, probably way more often than most people realize. There really is a network of illegal immigrants--often victims of human trafficking--in London as elsewhere. Bari is the 7th daughter of a couple in North Korea. She has a happy childhood until her world begins to fall apart during the famine in North Korea. Her family splits apart--her father is taken away, her oldest sister flees to China, and Bari goes with one of her sisters and her grandmother and dear dog to China. They hide in the woods and help a farm family, who also keeps their dog. Her sister dies of hunger and cold. Her grandmother dies of old age, and Bari goes to a city where she makes friends with a couple. She and the wife eventually manage to survive a smuggling to England. There she uses her skills as a foot masseuse (learned in China) and seer-like abilities to pay off her smuggling debt and build a client list. She marries and has a daughter, but is not done with her suffering.
    • 5/5
      I received this book as an Early Reviewer. I enjoy historical fiction but the books I usually read are from the 19th century to early 20th. This book takes place in the late 20th century however, it is about North Korean's seeking refuge in other places, in London in this case, and I was interested in hearing the story. I was not disappointed! I couldn't put the book down. Much of the book is about life in North Korea, the every day, the legends that have been passed down through the years, and the feelings of having to leave your home land and be alone in a new, unfamiliar place. I loved quotes throughout the book such as: "The world and every person in it--we're all the same." "I realized that life means waiting, enduring the passage of time. Nothing ever quite meets our expectations, yet as long as we are alive, time flows on, and everything eventually comes to pass." "No matter what awful things we go through, we cannot abandon hope in the world or in others." It is a book of learning, and I will be reading it again.
    • 4/5
      Princess Bari is a fast paced, melancholy meditation on suffering and human cruelty, adversity and forgiveness, and shared humanity across different experiences and cultures. The story is told from the point of view of Bari, a girl who escapes from North Korea and survives increasingly bleak circumstances that don't let up through the entire novel. The main narrative is interspersed with scenes focused on Bari's gift, a sort of psychic ability that becomes a dissociative coping mechanism at times and a way to maintain a connection to lost loved ones who help guide her through her challenging reality. Bari herself is a fairly stoic and matter-of-fact narrator, and the action of the plot was rapid, which helped keep my focus on Bari and her humanity rather than simply her experiences as a victim or refugee--it underlined her desires and agency in a very relatable way.
    • 3/5
      Bari and her family face starvation, informers, and death in North Korea. After her father is arrested and the family scatters, Bari escapes to China. In China, she is alone, cold, hungry, and desperate. After working illegally as a foot masseuse, she escapes in a cargo ship to London. I had trouble getting into this book. It was a mix of real life trauma and mysticism, as Bari has the talent to reach beyond the mundane and read others. Although this book wasn't really for me, it was well written and the characters well developed. I'm sure that many will enjoy this story.
    • 3/5
      Princess Bari by Hwang Sok-Yong takes us into the struggles of Bari' and her family as they try to survive the starvation of North Korea. Her psychic gifts don't help her life get any easier. Eventually she ends up on a ship to England. The crossing is violent and difficult. In England she is able to find work as a foot massager. She marries, has a child, the child dies. In the end she is reunited with her husband who has spent months in North Korea looking for his brother. The story is sad due to the struggles of Bari's life. The story seemed unfinished as the end leaves us wondering how the two of them will continue their lives.
    • 4/5
      I picked this up off the NEW shelves at the library, mostly because it was in translation from Korean, and also because it starts off in North Korea, a place I know almost nothing about.Bari is born an unwanted seventh daughter. Shortly after her birth, her mother discards her, only to be rescued by her grandmother (and the family dog.) Her grandmother then names her Bari after the Korean legend of Princess Bari -- who is also discarded and unwanted. Bari grows up with some spiritual powers, but it isn't until North Korea collapses into famine and death and Bari escapes to China that her life starts to follow the Princess's legend. Even China isn't safe for long, and she escapes again, this time on a cargo ship transporting undocumented immigrants. Not everyone survives the journey, but when Bari arrives in London, she uses her mysterious spiritual powers combined with the skills she has picked up as a foot masseuse to eek out a living, but also to bring comfort (both body and soul) to those she encounters.It's a story of immigration, suffering, and survival. I found the ending a bit abrupt, but I did appreciate and take to heart much of what the book said about immigration and fear and the things we let divide us.

    Book preview

    Princess Bari - Hwang Sok-yong

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