"It's 1983 during South Korea's Fifth Republic, a military regime that has entrenched its power through censorship, torture, and the murder of protesters.. In this charged political climate a freshman named Kim Hyun Sook seeks refuge in the comfort of books. When the handsome young editor of the school newspaper invites her to his reading group, she expects to talk about Moby Dick, Hamlet, The Scarlet Letter. Instead she finds herself hiding in a basement as the youngest member of an underground banned book club, And as Hyun Sook discovers, in a totalitarian regime, the delights of discovering great works of illicit literature are quickly overshadowed by fear and violence"--Back cover.