Escape from Camp 14

One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West

Hardcover, 205 pages

English language

Published March 29, 2012 by Viking.

ISBN:
978-0-670-02332-5
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4 stars (18 reviews)

North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have escaped. But Shin Donghyuk did.

In Escape from Camp 14, acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk and through the lens of Shin's life unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state. 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 own family. Through Harden's harrowing narrative of Shin's life and remarkable escape, he offers an unequaled inside account of one of the world's darkest nations and a …

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Review of 'Escape from Camp 14' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Despite the subject of the book admitting later that parts of the story were untrue, distorted, and altered, the book is a compelling account of the horrors of a North Korean prison camp. The book is worth a read with all the caveats presented in this article:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/11353430/North-Korean-Camp-14-gulag-survivor-admits-parts-of-story-untrue.html

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Subjects

  • Social conditions
  • Political prisoners
  • Concentration camps
  • Forced labor
  • Biography

Places

  • Korea (North)