The Human Consequences of Totalitarianism

"The Human Consequences of Totalitarianism"
A Conversation with Author Adam Johnson

Speaker: Professor Adam Johnson, Stanford University
Discussants: Professor Stephan Haggard, IR/PS; and Dean Seth Lerer, Arts and Humanities; UC San Diego

Date: Thursday, January 30, 2014
Time: 5:00 - 7:00pm
Location: UC San Diego, Institute of the Americas, Hojel Hall
Open to: Public

The event will be a conversation with Adam Johnson regarding his 2012 novel, "The Orphan Master's Son" about life in North Korea, that received the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in fiction.

Johnson is Associate Professor of English with emphasis in creative writing at Stanford University. His work has appeared in Esquire, Harper's, Playboy, GQ, Paris Review, Granta, Tin House, The New York Times and Best American Short Stories. He is the author of "Emporium," a short-story collection, and the novel "Parasites Like Us." His books have been translated into twenty-three languages. Johnson was a 2010 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow and is a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2013-14.

About the book: Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother—a singer “stolen” to Pyongyang—and an influential father who runs a work camp for orphans. He becomes a professional kidnapper who must navigate the shifting rules, arbitrary violence, and baffling demands of his Korean overlords in order to stay alive. Driven to the absolute limit of what any human being could endure, he boldly takes on the treacherous role of rival to Kim Jong Il in an attempt to save the woman he loves.

"The Orphan Master's Son" will be availabe for purchase, and a book signing will follow the public talk.

Thank you to UC San Diego Arts and Humanities, Department of Literature, Korean Studies and IR/PS Student Group Mannam for co-sponsoring this event, and the UC San Diego Bookstore for organizing the book signing.