"Die grosse Heimkehr" is a spy story, political and historical novel all in one, dealing with friendship, loyalty, and betrayal, and the impossible life in a dictatorship. The book narrates the consequences of the division of the Korean Peninsula and the beginnings of present-day North Korea, when Kim Il Sung's reign of terror was still in its infancy. It raises the question: Who owns history? The victors, who lock away archives and redact documents? Or the individual, who shares their experiences of loss and desolation with others, like fellow losers? Seoul, April 1960. Johnny Kim, his lover Eve Moon, and his childhood best friend Yunho Kang are on the run from the notorious Northwest Youth, an anti-communist paramilitary gang in the service of the South Korean government, which is on the brink of collapse.