[citation needed] Kim Eun Kook, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was born in 1932 in Hamhung, South Hamgyong, a city in what is now North Korea.

After serving in the Republic of Korea Marine Corps and Army, 1950–54, he was honorably discharged as first lieutenant of the Infantry in 1954 and came to the United States in 1955.

It was followed by The Innocent (1968), about politics in postwar South Korea, and Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood (1970), a collection of stories.

After twelve Christian ministers are found dead, allegedly at the hand of the Communists, Captain Lee, the narrator, is sent to interview the two survivors.

The novel also addresses larger questions about the war and about Korean Christianity, about the juxtaposition between the large-scale suffering of the public during wartime and the individual aspects of faith, hope, confession, etc.

[2] The novel was immensely popular, staying on the New York Times Bestseller List for twenty weeks and being translated into ten languages.

[3] Kim brings back characters from The Martyred in this novel set around a fictional coup d'état in South Korea (such as the one that occurred in 1961) and about the ethical dilemma encountered by a group of army officers as they realize that morality may require them to do horrific deeds.

[5] In this novel Kim reflects on the difficulty not only of rebuilding the nation after a horrific war, but also of maintaining one's innocence amidst so much corruption and in the face of the continued momentum of wartime violence.