Describes the attempt of Helie Lee to reunite her grandmother with her uncle who was lost decades ago during an escape from North Korea. - (Baker & Taylor)

The author of Still Life with Rice describes the impact of her previous book on her family and the dangerous rescue mission she and her family undertook to rescue her uncle from North Korea. 20,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)

Helie Lee often had heard her grandmother speak of an uncle, lost decades ago when he was a child during the family's daring escape from North Korea. As an adult, he was still living there under horrid conditions. When her grandmother began to ail, Helie became determined to reunite her with her eldest son, despite tremendous odds. Helie's mission became even more urgent when she realized that her first book, the bestselling novel Still Life with Rice, about the family's escape, might have angered the North Korean government and put her uncle in danger.
Pushing through rivers and forests, fighting the cold, bribing and manipulating border guards, gangsters, and secret service agents, Helie and her father finally achieve their goal. But there are many hurdles. Her uncle is forced to make a horrowing choice: leave his North Korean family behind or continue to live in oppression and starvation away from his beloved mother. And Helie has to face her deep, sometimes ambivalent, emotions about her identity in the family and as a Korean American woman. Unmarried and outspoken, she struggles in Korea, where women marry early and keep silent, and writes eloquently about the landscape there, both literal and cultural. She comes through a heartbreaking love affair only to face an intense and confusing relationship with the Guide - the man who, despite being crude and macho, ultimately helps to save her uncle and eventually his extended family through several daring acts of heroism. - (Blackwell North Amer)

Born in Seoul, South Korea, Helie Lee grew up in Los Angeles, where she now lives near her family. She lectures nationwide. - (Random House, Inc.)

A breathtaking true story of a rescue mission undertaken by a young woman and her family in one of the most repressive countries in the world.

Helie Lee often had heard her grandmother speak of an uncle, lost decades ago when he was a child during the family’s daring escape from North Korea. As an adult, he was still living there under horrid conditions. When her grandmother began to ail, Helie became determined to reunite her with her eldest son, despite tremendous odds. Helie’s mission became even more urgent when she realized that her first book, the bestselling novel Still Life with Rice, about the family’s escape, might have angered the North Korean government and put her uncle in danger.

Pushing through rivers and forests, fighting the cold, bribing and manipulating border guards, gangsters, and secret service agents, Helie and her father finally achieve their goal. But there are many hurdles. Her uncle is forced to make a harrowing choice: leave his North Korean family behind or continue to live in oppression and starvation away from his beloved mother. And Helie has to face her deep, sometimes ambivalent, emotions about her identity in the family and as a Korean American woman. Unmarried and outspoken, she struggles in Korea, where women marry early and keep silent, and writes eloquently about the landscape there, both literal and cultural. She comes through a heartbreaking love affair only to face an intense and confusing relationship with the Guide—the man who, despite being crude and macho, ultimately helps to save her uncle and eventually his extended family through several daring acts of heroism.

In the Absence of Sun is a riveting adventure story and a powerful tale of family bonds and reunion.

“An eerie fear crawled through my flesh as I stood on the Chinese side of the Yalu River, gazing across the murky water into one of the most closed-off and isolated countries in the world. I couldn’t believe it. Even as my boots sank into the doughy mud, I had trouble coming to terms with the fact that I was actually standing there. . . . I was not prepared for the kind of despair and insane fear I felt that day. My wizened old uncle looked nothing like the sweet-faced teenager in the faded photograph that Halmoni kept pressed between the pages of her Bible. That day, at the Yalu River, staring helplessly into his terrorized face, I hadn’t fully realized what a dangerous thing I had done the year before. I had placed him and his family in danger. By including details of my uncle’s life in a book, I had alerted North Korea’s enigmatic leadership to the identity of my relatives in a nation where it was better to remain invisible.” —From In the Absence of Sun - (Random House, Inc.)

Booklist Reviews

/*Starred Review*/ Lee's Still Life with Rice, published in 1996, was a novelized account of her grandmother's life and escape from what would become North Korea. One son was left behind, and, ironically, the success of Still Life with Rice put Yong Woon Uncle and his family in North Korea at risk. Grandmother, or Halmoni, is now over 80, and Lee and her family decide the time has come to try to unite Halmoni with her eldest child. With the help of a mysterious man known only as "the guide," and some assistance from the South Korean secret service and the Seoul Broadcasting System (which keeps trying to stage-manage events for a documentary about the family's reunion), Lee and her father overcome obstacles, personal danger, and numerous setbacks to finally bring nine people out of North Korea and into a new life in the South. Woven throughout are Lee's complicated relationships with her father and with the guide as she continues her own struggle with her Korean heritage--in particular, the paternalistic and patronizing attitudes toward women. Still dazed by their perilous escape and their plunge into an alien world, the first thing her North Korean relatives ask her is the same thing she hears back home in L.A.'s Koreatown--whether or not she is married. As she showed in her previous book, Lee has a gift for dramatization. The sections that chronicle the rescue mission are gripping, and readers may find themselves wishing for more of this and less of the author's sometimes overwritten accounts of her own experiences. But the book is important for the glimpse it offers into a closed and oppressive society, as eye-opening for us as the Lee Yong Woon family's first exposure to even the moderate freedoms and comforts of China is for them. For books on a similar theme, see the Read-alikes column on p.1301. ((Reviewed April 1, 2002)) Copyright 2002 Booklist Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

A spirited true-life tale of barbed wire, machine guns, and love-struck conspirators.Lee, who chronicled her grandmother's escape from Korea in Still Life with Rice (1996), in this follow-up returns to her ancestral country herself on a pointed mission: to fulfill a promise made to the grandmother that after 47 years of separation, she would live to see her eldest son, an unwilling subject of "North Korea's obscene dictatorship." Said son, now elderly himself, had a few useful contacts to aid in the escape plan they eventually concocted; so did Lee, who cultivated an odd relationship with a Chinese-Korean smuggler who apparently knew all the exits and just who to bribe. In the end, Lee's plan works despite some bumbling, some false turns, and some annoying intrusions on the part of the South Korean CIA and the American FBI; indeed, she gets more than she bargained for when not one but nine relatives make it across the dangerous North Korean frontier. Lee's narrative is somewhat too relaxed for the sort of political thriller the publisher promises, but it makes for a readable and one-of-a-kind tale all the same. Of particular interest to students of Asian literature are the author's reminiscences about her own comparatively privileged girlhood in southern California, where, she writes, "I bleached and permed and tortured my black hair, tanned my yellow skin, and Scotch-taped my eyes to crease the lids. I even taught myself to sing ‘Hava Nagila,' to ska dance to the Police, and to like cottage cheese." Readers interested in a glimpse behind North Korea's iron wall will also find much in her pages to assure them that this worker's paradise is not a particularly nice place to live.Le Carre or Ambler she's not, but Lee's memoir delivers action and a satisfying resolution. Copyright Kirkus 2002 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved

Library Journal Reviews

Young, hip, and successful, Lee lives in Los Angeles, has written a best-selling book (Still Life with Rice), and has a rich boyfriend in Hong Kong. But she still had something she wanted to accomplish: to reunite Grandmother Halmoni with the last of her sons, the one still in North Korea. Time was of the essence since Halmoni was in her mid-eighties and weakening. The project demanded detailed planning, four long trips, dangerous bribery, and many hardships, along with endless delays, unexpected events, and unremitting anxiety. To relate her experience, Lee uses an overwrought style that makes us wonder whether she is exaggerating (are economy-class seats on airplanes that horrible?), but her story and background information on conditions and places in China and Korea are compelling and truthful. We learn a lot about Lee herself, especially her love life, and about being Korean American. Recommended. Kitty Chen Dean, Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, NY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

Lee's bestselling debut, Still Life with Rice (1996), created quite a stir. It chronicled Lee's grandmother's 1950 escape from northern to southern Korea during a civil war that separated the Koreas and tore Lee's grandmother's family apart, as her eldest son, Lee Yong Woon, did not make it out of the north. Lee (who was born in Seoul, South Korea, and now lives in Los Angeles) used her uncle's real name in Still Life and included his picture. Once that book became available in South Korea, Lee's family was notified that her book had placed her relatives inNorth Korea in danger. Nonetheless, Lee promised her grandmother that she would see her son again, thus undertaking a daring mission chronicled here to reunite the family. The account is a gripping and inspiring one, and Lee's prose resonates with a poetic sensibility. She also brings a distinctly American perspective to the entire situation. At times, the author's desire to make the story her own (including a long segue into her relationship with her boyfriend) steal some of the swiftness and urgency from a story that ultimately belongs to her entire family. But an all-out thrilling escape story, complete with dangerous border crossings, unexpected romance and touching family moments, makes for a terrific and beautiful chronicle. Lee reflects, "I believe one family, one person, one action can make a difference, because we are all connected. When we realize this connection, peace is possible." B&w photos not seen by PW. Agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh. (Apr.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.