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Escape from Camp 14
One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
“If you have a soul, you will be changed forever by Blaine Harden’s Escape from Camp 14." — Mitchell Zuckoff, New York Times bestselling author of Lost in Shangri-La
The heartwrenching New York Times bestseller about the only known person born inside a North Korean prison camp to have escaped
North Korea’s political prison camps have existed twice as long as Stalin’s Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. No one born and raised in these camps is known to have escaped. No one, that is, except Shin Dong-hyuk.
In Escape From Camp 14, Blaine Harden unlocks the secrets of the world’s most repressive totalitarian state through the story of Shin’s shocking imprisonment and his astounding getaway. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence—he saw his mother as a competitor for food, guards raised him to be a snitch, and he witnessed the execution of his mother and brother.
The late “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il was recognized throughout the world, but his country remains sealed as his third son and chosen heir, Kim Jong Eun, consolidates power. Few foreigners are allowed in, and few North Koreans are able to leave. North Korea is hungry, bankrupt, and armed with nuclear weapons. It is also a human rights catastrophe. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people work as slaves in its political prison camps. These camps are clearly visible in satellite photographs, yet North Korea’s government denies they exist.
Harden’s harrowing narrative exposes this hidden dystopia, focusing on an extraordinary young man who came of age inside the highest security prison in the highest security state. Escape from Camp 14 offers an unequalled inside account of one of the world’s darkest nations. It is a tale of endurance and courage, survival and hope.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
March 29, 2012 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781101561263
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781101561263
- File size: 5472 KB
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Languages
- English
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Levels
- ATOS Level: 8.1
- Lexile® Measure: 1130
- Interest Level: 9-12(UG)
- Text Difficulty: 7-9
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Reviews
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Publisher's Weekly
October 10, 2011
With a protagonist born into a life of backbreaking labor, cutthroat rivalries, and a nearly complete absence of human affection, Harden’s book reads like a dystopian thriller. But this isn’t fiction—it’s the biography of Shin Dong-hyuk, the only known person born into one of North Korea’s secretive prison labor camps who has managed to escape and now lives in the U.S. Harden structures Shin’s horrific experience—which includes witnessing the execution of his brother and sister after their escape plan is discovered—around an examination of the role that political imprisonment and forced labor play in North Korea and the country’s fraught relationship with its economically prosperous neighbors South Korea and China While Shin eventually succeeds in escaping North Korea’s brutal dictatorship, adjusting to his new life proves to be extraordinarily difficult, and he wrestles with his complicity in the atrocities of his past—he informed on his mother and other brother, which led to their execution. “I was more faithful to the guards than to my family. We were each other’s spies,” he confesses. Harden wisely avoids depicting the West as a panacea for Shin’s trauma, instead leaving the reader to wonder whether Shin will ever be able to reconcile his past with the present. Harden notes both the difficulty of obtaining information about daily existence in North Korea and of fact-checking such information (including Shin’s own version of events), and the book’s brevity may leave readers wanting more from this brisk, brutal, sorrowful read. -
Kirkus
January 15, 2012
The chilling story of a prisoner in North Korea. Born in Labor Camp 14, the child of political prisoners, Shin Dong-hyuk spent 23 years imprisoned, initially with his mother and other families in cramped quarters with no running water, no furniture and little soap. For protein, there were insects and rats. For a while, there was school, one without books or real education. Nothing was taught about the outside world, other than that it was peopled by enemies. At age 10 Shin began mining coal for the love of the Dear Leader Kim Jong-il. As an adolescent he was tortured viciously in an underground cell, and then taken to witness the execution of his mother and brother. He was not affected by the spectacle; he did not grieve. They had spoken of escape, and Shin had reported them. After learning from older prisoners about other lands and the foods to be had there, he planned his own escape. Through a series of improbable events, he made it to China, South Korea and then America. His spiritual journey--still in progress--has not been easy. His is one man's remarkable story of deliverance from a hidden land where fact-checking is virtually impossible. Economist contributor Harden (A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia, 1996, etc.), nevertheless, has done his research, and Shin's adventure largely conforms to those of the few others who have escaped captivity. The text was completed before the Dear Leader's death. Camp 14 has been in operation for half a century, and we can only suppose that the new, baby-faced Supreme Leader will continue the legacy of the dynasty. A terrifying story of brutal captivity and unremitting misery and the difficult adjustment to subsequent life in a very different place.COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Library Journal
Starred review from February 15, 2012
This is a relentlessly disturbing book, more so because Harden (former East Asia bureau chief, Washington Post) presents the facts dispassionately. Shin Dong-Hyuk was born in 1982 in one of North Korea's gulags, Camp 14, which covers 108 square miles and holds about 50,000 prisoners. In a world of horrific living conditions, brutal punishments, and competition for minimal scraps of food (supplemented by secret hunting for frogs, rats, and bugs), Shin was oblivious of such concepts as affection or honesty, knowing only the instinct to survive. Seeking to be a dutiful prisoner, at age 13 he informed on his mother and elder brother who planned to escape. Shin saw them beaten and killed, which at the time affected him little. At 23, he escaped, one of few to do so and survive. VERDICT Following Shin's story from North Korea to China to South Korea and eventually to the States and connecting it to the larger story of North Korea's dictatorship and culture, Harden (who has met Shin several times since 2008) tells a gripping story. Readers learn of Shin's gradual discovery of the world at large, nonadversarial human relationships, literature, and hope--and the struggles ahead. A book that all adults should read.--Margaret Heilbrun, Library Journal
Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Booklist
February 15, 2012
There are some people in this world who remain unaware of the repressive regime of the late Kim Jong Il. They have never heard of him, Pyongyang, South Korea, or freedom. They are North Koreans, specifically those unfortunate ones born inand confined tolabor camps. Harden tells the harrowing story of Shin Dong-hyuk, a young man born in the notorious Camp 14. Shin's parents were given to each other as a reward for good work, and he rarely saw them because familial bonds were discouraged. Shin lived in barracks, working from a young age in labor that killed many. Everyone was encouraged to snitch on each other, a policy so ingrained that Shin snitched on his mother, resulting in her public execution. In his early twenties, Shin became the first person to escape a North Korean labor camp. Harden details the difficult years that follow: months in rural China, cultural shock in affluent and competitive South Korea, and existential confusion once Shin reaches the U.S.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)
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Formats
- OverDrive Read
- EPUB ebook
Languages
- English
Levels
- ATOS Level:8.1
- Lexile® Measure:1130
- Interest Level:9-12(UG)
- Text Difficulty:7-9
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