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"'One of the most terrifying memoirs I have ever read. As the first such account to emerge from North Korea, it is destined to become a classic.' Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking 'I beseech you to read this account' Christopher Hitchens"
Product Description
Kang Chol-Hwan is the first survivor of a North Korean concentration camp to escape the 'hermit kingdom' and tell his story to the world. This memoir reveals the human suffering in his camp, with its forced labour, frequent public executions and near-starvation rations. Kang eventually escaped to South Korea via China to give testimony to the hardships and atrocities that constitute the lives of the thousands of people still detained in the gulags today. Part horror story, part historical document, part memoir, part political tract, this story of one young man's personal suffering finally gives eye-witness proof to this neglected chapter of modern history.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a rare and important account of life inside North Korea, and the first account to emerge from its concentration camps. If (as I did) you visit the Hermit kingdom, you will find that it is impossible to penetrate the country's smothering blanket of totalitarian propaganda. Kang Chol-Hwan illuminates the grisly reality behind the official scenes of happy peasants and workers who learn to adore the "dear leader" and hate everyone else from the moment they can talk. He tells the awful but irresistable story of how his family foolishly gave up the good life in Japan, returned to North Korea and ended up down the toilet of Kim Il-sung's evil system. He was nine years old when he entered the camp. It was ten years before he came out.
His account confirms all the worst fears about North Korea: the mindlessness, the cruelty, the desperation and the petty corruption. It's the last which gives some hope of change, since it proves that even these brainwashed automata are human deep down and the desire for a better life has run deep cracks in the utterly awful regime.
The author is a tough cookie and a canny survivor, making the book more uplifting than depressing. Kang's story of his escape is especially rewarding. Of course a happier ending -- reunion with his family, downfall of the regime -- would be too much to wish for. Similar literature from other countries often made me despair, but this book made me feel like actually doing something about the problem and I'm sure it will turn many readers into passionate activists. It will help that Kang's book is much easier reading than much other Gulag literature, such as Solzhenitsyn.
Everyone who wants to understand the world we live in, not just the mad, dark corner that is North Korea, should read this book.
His account confirms all the worst fears about North Korea: the mindlessness, the cruelty, the desperation and the petty corruption. It's the last which gives some hope of change, since it proves that even these brainwashed automata are human deep down and the desire for a better life has run deep cracks in the utterly awful regime.
The author is a tough cookie and a canny survivor, making the book more uplifting than depressing. Kang's story of his escape is especially rewarding. Of course a happier ending -- reunion with his family, downfall of the regime -- would be too much to wish for. Similar literature from other countries often made me despair, but this book made me feel like actually doing something about the problem and I'm sure it will turn many readers into passionate activists. It will help that Kang's book is much easier reading than much other Gulag literature, such as Solzhenitsyn.
Everyone who wants to understand the world we live in, not just the mad, dark corner that is North Korea, should read this book.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the third book that I have read on the subject of North Korea in quick succession, the others, being 'Nothing to Envy' by Barbara Demmick and 'This is Paradise! My North Korean Childhood' by Hyok Kang. All three have lived up to my expectations, in terms of what I am learning about this hermit kingdom. The strength of the characters that we meet in these books defies belief and Kang Chol-Hwan is no exception. I struggle to get my head around what life was really like for these totally courageous people. I suppose the problem for the rest of us living in the west is that we have only known freedom and have no concept of what it would be like to be so totally controlled by a suffocating regime and not be able to express ourselves in the way we can today.
My curiosity with North Korea continues unabated and I am already reading reviews of books that others have read to help me decide which book i should read on the subject next.
I highly recomend this book for anyone interested in learning about those who have managed to escape this totslly opressive regime!!
My curiosity with North Korea continues unabated and I am already reading reviews of books that others have read to help me decide which book i should read on the subject next.
I highly recomend this book for anyone interested in learning about those who have managed to escape this totslly opressive regime!!
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a lesson on how absolute power corrupts absolutley
on how you can be denounced and dissapear into a system without hope
brutal tale of life in a North korean gulag
as a visitor to its nieghbour South korea many times, it gave me a shudder to read how in a country without checks and balances, anthing can happen to you
for little or no reason.
on how you can be denounced and dissapear into a system without hope
brutal tale of life in a North korean gulag
as a visitor to its nieghbour South korea many times, it gave me a shudder to read how in a country without checks and balances, anthing can happen to you
for little or no reason.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great book
Easy to read page turner that gave me an insight in North Korean life/society/concentration camp. FANTASTIC BOOK.
Life in the North Korean gulag is told in detail.
Life in the North Korean gulag is told in detail.
Published 1 month ago by P. J. De Weerd
AN INSIGHT INTO A LOST COMMUNIST COUNTRY
I enjoyed this book, though obviously found the revealations horrifying. It is a salutory lesson in the great freedom of speech and thought that e in the Western wortld take for... Read more
Published 2 months ago by bibliophile
A Perverted Goldfish Bowl
This is the gripping memoir, despite a somewhat clunky translation at times, of one the first North Koreans to claim asylum in the South, after escaping via China in 1992. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Antenna
The Aquariums of Pyongyang.
Unlike most books about North Korea which analyse the political side of the country, the history, the leadership and its aims, the issues with South Korea and the US; The Aquariums... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Maximus
The Voice
A truly remarkable account of a life fraught with fear, famine and survival. The fact this is a biographic account makes it moving and shocking. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Hosterio
Another tiny nail in the coffin of the DPRK
I have been fascinated about the country for some years now, and have read most books on the subject - most recently "Nothing In The World To Envy", but this certainly gives the... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Trev Go
The horrors of North Korea revealed in all its details
Kang Chol-Hwan tells the story of his life and by doing so gives the reader a firsthand account of what is going on inside North Korea and the country's concentration camps and the... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Thomas Koetzsch
Important, disturbing book.
Kang Chol-Hwan has written a very important, illuminating book about 10 years of life at the infamous Yodok concentration camp. Read more
Published 15 months ago by matigrebooks
Totally insane... a must read!
This is the story of a child of 9 being imprisoned in the North Korean gulag system and what he does to not only survive but eventually escape to South Korea. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Dysonsphere
A look into the most secretive state
A thrilling read in my opinion I can never read enough about the North, immerse yourself in this book as you will not put it down for long.
Published 17 months ago by Georgie
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