Hidden Heroes: Anthology of North Korean Fiction

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Hidden Heroes

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Title:	Hidden Heroes
Authors:	various
Genre:	Stories
Written:	(Eng. 2025)
Length:	189 pages
Original in:	Korean
Availability:	Hidden Heroes - US
	Hidden Heroes - UK
	Hidden Heroes - Canada

	from: Bookshop.org (US)

Anthology of North Korean Fiction
Translated and with an Introduction by Benoit Berthelier and Immanuel Kim
Ten stories by ten different authors

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Our Assessment:

B : solid, varied selection, providing some decent insight into North Korean society and cultural production

See our review for fuller assessment.

Review Summaries
Source	Rating	Date	Reviewer
Asian Rev. of Books	.	30/6/2025	John A Riley

From the Reviews:

"Some of the details in Much of the Hidden Heroes are recognizable, ordinary, but are sometimes surprising to see in the North Korean context. (...) Kim and Berthelier chose pieces that were popular with audiences in North Korea. Knowing this, it’s impossible not to wonder what the appeal of these particular stories must be in a culture so vastly different, and where official literature is narrowly defined. (...) Though the stories of Hidden Heroes do not have much immediate literary or entertainment value, this is not the purpose of the anthology. Hidden Heroes offers anglophone readers a snapshot of the lives of everyday people in North Korea." - John A. Riley, Asian Review of Books

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

Hidden Heroes presents ten North Korean stories written between 1984 and 2009. As translators Berthelier and Kim explain in their Introduction, they selected:

works of fiction that implement a narrative trope that has become dominant since the late 1970s, that of the hidden hero: seemingly average citizens who perform their duty with extraordinary dedication and little regard for recognition or compensation.

       As they note, this allows them to present: "a diverse array of protagonists and settings", giving some idea of both life in North Korea and the fiction being written and published there in relatively recent times. (Regrettably, as they also admit: "this approach largely excludes genres such as detective fiction, science fiction or historical novels".) They further divide the collection into three sections, grouping the stories into ones focused on: 'Identities', 'Communities', and 'Power'.
       Interestingly, the table of Contents as well as then the ten individual chapter-headings offer only the titles of the stories -- the absence of any possible name-recognition of the authors is understood. Each chapter does then introduce the author, and then the work in question, in a few paragraphs -- though bizarrely, in all cases except the first (where the story's sections are numbered), the chapters transition from introduction (written by the translators) to the story itself without any space in the text, just moving from one paragraph to the next as if it were all one continuous text.
       The collection opens with 'The Key', narrated by Yŏngmi, whose husband, Pŏmsik, seems to be beyond redemption; he is even sent to a re-education camp. Early in their relationship, he had told her: "If I set my mind to something, I do it. Remember that" -- but for a long time he rarely set his mind to much that could be considered positive and their marriage was mostly not a happy one, as he continued to go about: "skipping work to hang out with his friends, spending his time drinking, gambling and getting into fights". He does seem to genuinely care for their child, young Ch'ungguk, but can he change his ways ? Yŏngmi keeps the faith -- and Pŏmsik does make her proud (though this isn't a fall-into-each-other's arms romantic tale, as at the end of the story Pŏmsik is (admirably) toiling away, far away from home -- but he has ... sent a telegram to his long-suffering wife).
       'A Day in the Life of a Female Manager' is an account of just that, chronicling the juggling of family -- Kim Myŏngok and her husband have two children -- and workplace over the course of a single (but typical) day. Early on, author Kang Pongye writes of her protagonist: "Her slim white face and rosy cheeks suggested a soft, kind woman, but she was not kind at all", but that proves to be an overly harsh judgment. Myŏngok is professional, but it is noteworthy how involved she is in the personal lives of her co-workers -- including with the story building to the evening wedding of one of the repairmen at the factory.
       In 'Face' a successful architect comes to recall a friendship from his high school days, forty years earlier, when he and a classmate had both had grand architectural plans -- only to find they had very different ideas, ultimately driving them apart. In the present day the architect had thought his latest project -- a redevelopment of the streets in Sŏjung district -- was in the bag, but ultimately his plans are rejected -- and, after looking them over, he has to admit:

There were errors everywhere. What the council had criticized -- the lack of creativity and the reuse of existing designs -- was evident. I could not believe how complacent I had become. I had spent time primping my face in the mirror every morning, but I hadn't given the same attention to my heart.

       Here, an unexpected renewed connection to his old schoolfriend shows him where true heart is ..... The friend -- who couldn't truly follow his passion, but became a geologist instead -- is a particularly artful spin on the kind of 'hidden heroes' found throughout the collection (even if the way they manage to re-connect seems rather too convenient).
       'Neighbors' is narrated by a journalist, who had moved into a newly built apartment building at the same time as his neighbors, four months earlier, but with their busy lives they rarely can manage to get together -- but plan to for a big outing, on Foundation Day, to celebrate together. One of the neighbors -- in the important position of director of the district's food distribution -- doesn't seem to get in the spirit of things, though given his position he could obviously contribute, and there's growing annoyance with him when he long appears to be a no-show on their outing. Of course, there is an explanation why he is so long delayed, and ultimately they are all able to enjoy the picnic -- in the spirit of the day being celebrated.
       'Hoping for Luck to Strike' sees the narrator being sent on a business trip -- coïncidentally to the village where his in-laws live, so his wife nags him to visit them, not least to bring a picture of a man they think might be an appropriate match for his wife's younger sister, Yŏngok, a match that might allow her to escape the countryside and settle in the big city. Meanwhile, the wife is also nagging her husband to go to the Housing Assignment Department, to do what he can to enable them to move to a larger apartment. The husband keeps putting off going to that department -- but then meets someone who works there on the train to his destination, and the encounter leaves him thinking he's at least greased the wheels some. Other than that encounter, the trip doesn't go so great from the start, and things get worse as he misses the bus to his in-laws, and then gets drenched in the rain when he tries to walk there. Everything seems to be going wrong -- luck repeatedly not striking -- until he gets to his in-laws, where there is a telegram waiting for him with good news: unexpected, but good luck does strike. Well, of course, he always held onto that hope:

The hope that luck would strike ... This hope was not a coincidence. I realized that my life was no mere coincidence. From the day I was born in this blessed country, everything has been given to me.

He's learned his lesson:

The Great Leader and the Dear General who have made these strokes of luck an everyday thing... If we forget even for a moment to respect our leaders, we will end up becoming ludicrous beings, much like I have today.

       It seems a rather dubious lesson and moral, but certainly is a vision of that world that the authorities no doubt very much approve of.
       'Seventeen People's Laughter' sees a famous musician sacrifice a family outing with wife and teenage daughter in order to entertain a larger group. The pouty daughter is one of the more vivid characters in the whole collection, annoyed at the hold up and then change of plans -- "'Dad, let's go, now !"' she cried" -- though she too learns her lesson, with the narrator wondering, a year later: "How did she mature so much in just one year ? The human heart is truly beautiful".
       'The Actor's Last Class' is among the more interesting stories, because much of it is set abroad, in Japan. We know from the start that Pak Roksan has achieved great things -- he's just been granted the title of: "People's Actor of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea after he had received praise from Kim Jong Il"; it is: "the highest honor for an actor" -- but on this big occasion he looks back to earlier days, when things weren't going so well. Author Kang Kwimi was born in Kobe, Japan, and moved to North Korea as part of a repatriation scheme when she was sixteen; Pak Roksan's family are also zainichi (Koreans in Japan), and when Pak Roksan's mother and younger brother leave for North Korea in 1963 the twenty-year-old decides to stay behind, determined to become a great actor. His Korean heritage -- hidden, but not well enough -- dashes his dreams in racist Japan, with much of the story describing how low he falls. Still, he survives, helped by another zainichi -- whose daughter he knew from school -- and eventually, of course, is drawn to the promised land (and mom) -- where, as we know, he will go on to great success as an actor after all.
       'Life' is written by Paek Namnyong -- the only author with a larger work already available in English, the novel Friend (also translated by Immanuel Kim). (It is also the oldest work here -- written in 1984, according to the 'Translation Source' listing at the beginning of the book, or 1985, according to the footnote to the story-title itself then.) It features university dean Ri Sŏkhun, who underwent a difficult medical procedure and is now sort of faced with a dilemma, as the son of the surgeon who saved his life narrowly missed out on his university acceptance exam -- and: "As the dean in charge of admissions, Sŏkhun knew that he had the power to determine the fate of a student".
       The student at the bottom of the list, who just made the cut, comes across as a bit of a: "country bumpkin rather than a city boy" -- but does show, for example: "a deep understanding of the principles of each historic phase". Complicating matters is one more candidate:

It's the daughter of the Vice Chairman of the Provincial Party Central Committee. She, too, took the entrance exam, but her score came up a bit shy of the cut.

       Unfortunately, of course, there is little suspense here: of course everybody does the right thing (even if the doctor drowns his in rather too much booze, which seems somewhat problematic). There are some solid scenes here -- though, as in so many of these, compressed, for the story-format -- but it's all too obvious that everyone will be doing the right thing. (As in all these stories, characters may face moral dilemmas, but no one is actually immoral; Pŏmsik, in 'The Key' is the closest to someone who is genuinely 'bad' -- yet even he comes to change his ways.)
       'Spring Evening' is the shortest and most playful of the stories, a factory supervisor being driven home by a driver who has other things on his mind. The driver definitely acts unprofessionally, making a stop for personal reasons, but with a wink the supervisor not only pretends nothing out of the ordinary has happened but generously goes along with it.
       The final story, 'The Life Expectancy Chart', has a sharper comic touch. It is a workplace story, where department manager Ro Anmun butts heads with fairly new employee Myŏng Pudŏk, with the 'life expectancy chart' Myŏng had scribbled in his notebook taken by Ro Anmun as further evidence of his irresponsibility, leading him to wonder: "What abyss of nonsense had Myŏng fallen into with this gibberish ?" As it turns out, Myŏng was making a point -- with Ro Anmun the one with a lesson to learn.
       The literary quality of all these stories barely rises above the workmanlike, and the morals of the story -- and they practically all have one (or more ...) -- are hammered home rather too easily and forcefully, but there's enough here that is of interest. If somewhat -- and occasionally very -- idealized, the stories do give some impression of work- and family-life in North Korea. The short form is, of course, rather limiting, especially given the ambitions of some of the stories (and the lessons to be learnt), but there are a variety of creative scenarios here -- and there's certainly enough variety to hold the reader's interest and attention. The theme of 'hidden heroes' works quite well, especially with the somewhat unexpected ones, as in the final two stories, or 'The Actor's Last Class'.
       Given how little North Korean fiction is available in translation, any is welcome, and Hidden Heroes is certainly a very welcome addition to the still far too small library of such works. It's a bit of a shame that there aren't any more-contemporary stories included -- the most recent is apparently already more than fifteen years old, before the start of the Kim Jong Un era --, though it is also noticeable how 'timeless' practically all these stories are, as, with the exception of 'The Actor's Last Class' with its specific historic reference, there is almost nothing (beyond the Kim family) that places these stories in any specific time, a quite remarkable ahistoricism.
       (Note also that -- unusual in a work of fiction -- Hidden Heroes also has an Index -- though, alas, one that can at best be described as half-hearted. While most of the references are to the various introductions to the stories, the Index isn't quite limited to that; it is, however, far from comprehensive and only of limited use.)

- M.A.Orthofer, 26 June 2025

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Links:

Hidden Heroes:

First Hill Books publicity page

Reviews:

Asian Review of Books

Other books of interest under review:

Brian Myers on Han Sorya and North Korean Literature
An Ethnological Inquiry by Sonia Ryang, Reading North Korea
See Index of Korean literature
See Index of Anthologies

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