The Seed of Joy: A Novel of Korea (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798184909998)

An immersive dramatization of a pivotal moment in South Korea's history. Our Verdict: GET IT. - Kirkus Reviews

Based on actual events, The Seed of Joy: A Novel of Korea doesn't just tell a story. It captures an important moment in history through intensely personal, emotionally charged experience. It's a sweeping tale of love, courage, and moral awakening set against the turbulent backdrop of South Korea during the Gwangju Uprising of May 1980, also known as the May 18 Democratization Movement.

In 1979, South Korea has serious problems. North Korea is looking for an excuse to attack. A dictatorial president is in power. There's a powerful right-wing turn within the South Korean government, and university students are growing restless, yearning for democracy, itching for a fight.

Into this hornet's nest comes Paul Harkin, a naïve American Midwesterner. A newly-minted Peace Corps volunteer, he deals with the challenges that every expat faces: language, cultural faux pas, homesickness. But when he falls in love with Han Mi Jin, a schoolteacher who supports Korea's democratic movement, his challenges intensify. Increasingly disturbing events swirl around the couple: the president is assassinated, the military takes control of the country and extends martial law, political arrests become commonplace, and violent student demonstrations spill into the streets.

Other forces threaten to tear Paul and Mi Jin apart. The Peace Corps administrators learn of Paul's involvement with political protests and try to expel him. Mi Jin's parents arrange an engagement between her and a local man in an attempt to bring her back home to the countryside. Somehow their love survives.

A still more harrowing challenge is yet to come. Caught up in the horrors of the Gwangju Uprising, in which over 100 people are killed and thousands injured, Paul takes up Mi Jin's cause. In the chaos that follows, he wrestles with love and loss, freedom and duty.

This edition of The Seed of Joy is substantially rewritten and updated with the latest available information about the Gwangju Uprising and its political consequences. It includes a new Afterword by Choi Yongju, former director of the National Fact-Finding Commission for the May 18 Democratization Movement.