I will be there

There will be a story about young people living in a tragic time. It is also a story of people who find themselves scattered, despite the love each one bears for the other; because they carry deep wounds inside that they must overcome. People who struggle to be together again. Their story takes place in the 1980s and early 1990s in South Korea, the same period when I was in my twenties and early thirties. The dictatorship of Park Chung-hee, which lasted a long time, collapsed, but what replaced it was not freedom, but a new dictatorship led by General Chun Doo-hwan. During that period, South Korean youth, including university students, protested in the streets, where they were almost daily attacked with tear gas in their pursuit of democracy and freedom. That period of unrest lasted about ten years. Young people would go out to protest against the government one day only to disappear mysteriously the next day, while others committed suicide in the streets to express their protest. Some young leaders of the demonstrations died suspiciously in the army during their mandatory conscription. If it weren’t for the sacrifice of these young people — who fought and struggled for change — South Korea would not be what it is today. This history is what shaped the atmosphere of the novel "I Will Be There". Book information: • Author: Kyung Sook Shin • Translation: Mohamed Naguib • Year of publication: 2021 • Publisher: Al-Mahrousa Publishing and Distribution • Number of pages: 369