House of Anansi Press editorial director Janie Yoon was at the London Book Fair last March when she ran into Amy Hundley, an editor and rights director at Grove Atlantic, who told her about a collection of short stories thought to be the first to come out of North Korea. After reading the manuscript, Yoon was “taken right away.” She acquired Canadian rights for Bandi’s The Accusation: Forbidden Stories From Inside North Korea, published this month with a translation by Deborah Smith, who won the Man Booker Prize with author Han Kang for The Vegetarian. Bandi – which translates to “firefly” in Korean – is a pseudonym for the anonymous author.

“The book reads like non-fiction in some ways, which is what is so startling about it,” says Yoon, who experienced an “overwhelming sense” of being watched as she reviewed the manuscript. “There are many different types of citizens – from people who are doing farm and factory work to people who live in Pyongyang, whom you assume are part of the upper classes, as far as upper classes go in North Korea. There’s a range of different experiences and points of view, speaking particularly about men and women, old and young. I thought that was quite remarkable.”

The handwritten manuscript, comprising seven stories, was smuggled out of the country by human-rights activist Do Hee-youn, who learned about it from another activist he had assisted when she was facing extradition to North Korea from China. Do hired a Korean to travel to the north undercover as a tourist and contact the writer directly for a hand-off. The manuscript left the country tucked between propaganda documents.

The Accusation was published in South Korea in 2014 to little attention. Yoon says it’s because South Koreans are inundated with information, news-wise, about their northern neighbour, and so details of this life are not as interesting to readers. But Do was persistent, and eventually sold a French translation. To date, the book has been translated into 18 languages in 20 countries, including in the U.S. by Grove and in the U.K. with Serpent’s Tail. Anansi publisher and president Sarah McLachlan expects the book will do well because of the incredible back story and the fact that North Korea is currently in the news and at the centre of attention because of its nuclear missile testing.