How I Became a North Korean is Krys Lee's debut novel and follow-up to her acclaimed short story collection, Drifting House. While both concentrate on the varied experiences of people in the fractured Korean peninsula and in diaspora, the novel focuses on the Joseon-jok, "ethnic Koreans who'd lived alongside the Han Chinese in northeastern China," as well as on refugees from famine-stricken North Korea struggling to survive in the border areas.
At first, Lee's trio of protagonists seem to share little aside from their ethnic heritage. Yongju is forced to flee his relatively privileged life in Pyongyang after his high-ranking father is executed by Kim Jong-il. Pregnant and desperate to protect her unborn child, Jangmi finds her way across the border into China thanks to a hastily arranged marriage. Finally, Danny, a misfit Chinese American teen with Korean heritage, flees to the border areas in a questionable attempt to find himself. Their lives intersect and diverge in surprising ways, providing a fictional interpretation of a real-life crisis--the author's time as an activist for North Korean refugees in China's border region no doubt lends to the novel's feeling of authenticity.
Lee's prose style is understated, almost journalistic. She is gifted at conveying the powerful feeling of not belonging that haunts her characters, and how their social disconnection translates into persistent vulnerability. It's a dangerous world that Yongju, Jangmi and Danny inhabit; How I Became a North Korean is a tribute to a people who survive against all odds. --Hank Stephenson, bookseller, Flyleaf Books