"The recipient of Korea's highest literary prizes, HWANG SOK-YONG is the author of nine works of fiction and has been published in six languages. His work, which grapples with the troubled history of his divided country, has been the cause of his imprisonment, his exile, and the rare achievement of a wide international readership. His novels in English include The Old Garden , a tragic love story set against the backdrop of the end of the Cold War and South Korea's political revolution of the eighties, and The Guest , based on the true account of a violent clash between Communist and Christian neighbors in a Korean village during the Korean War. His most recent bestsellers in Korea, where Hwang Sok-yong is arguably that country's most popular and widely read writers, include Baridegi ( Princess Bari ) and Gaebapbaragibyeol ( The Evening Star ), a coming-of-age novel that Hwang Sok-yong wrote as a blog.".