A Mark of Red Honor

This autobiographical novel narrated by the author’s eponymous character candidly shares the story of his birth, childhood as a sensitive boy, school years marked by infatuations with a male friend and teacher, military service as superiors’ favorite, agony as a newlywed realizing that he is unfit for marriage, roving through China as a North Korean defector, and tumultuous experience as a sexual minority settled in South Korea—episodes too multifarious and eclectic to have happened to one person.

• Jang Young-jin, Author

  Jang Young-jin was born in 1959 in Gyeongseong, Hamgyeongbuk-do, North Korea, and was raised in Cheongjin. After graduating people’s school and middle school, he was called to serve his military duty midway through his study at the Kim Hyong Jik University of Education. After discharge, he worked as a common laborer until March 20, 1996, when he crossed the Dumangang River and defected to China. When his attempts to cross over to South Korea failed after a year and a month, he returned to North Korea, advanced south on foot, and finally succeeded in crossing the east end of the Military Demarcation Line at the dawn of April 27, 1997. Since his settlement in South Korea, Jang has rekindled his passion for literature and devoted himself to writing novels.

• John H. Cha, Translator

  John H. Cha is a writer and translator. He has written biographies of historically significant Korean and Korean American figures, including Willow Tree Shade: the Susan Ahn Cuddy Story, Exit Emperor Kim Jong-il: Notes from His Former Mentor, among them. He has won a number of awards—Korea Literature Award, PEN-Korea Translation Award, Korea Times Translation Award, Korean American Literature Award. He is a member of PEN-America.