A monumental literary enterprise recording the life of every person Korean writer and activist Ko Un has ever known or known of. Ten Thousand Lives is Ko Un’s major, ongoing work, which began during his imprisonment with a determination to describe every person he had ever met. Maninbo , as it is known in Korea, is now in its 20th volume and he has plans for five more before its completion. The selection in this volume - from the first 10 - represents one of the major classics of the 20th century Korean literature, published for the first time in English. Ko Un has often been nominated by his country for the Nobel Prize.