Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West

The startling tale of one of the few persons born into a North Korean political jail who managed to escape and live is a New York Times bestseller.

North Korea is a hostile, impoverished, and solitary country. It carries nuclear weapons as well. Its political prison camps, which have persisted for twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times longer than the Nazi concentration camps, are home to between 150,000 and 200,000 individuals. Few people who were reared in these camps have managed to escape. Shin Donghyuk, nevertheless, did.

Renowned writer Blaine Harden chronicles Shin Dong-hyuk's narrative in Escape from Camp 14, revealing the inner workings of the most oppressive totalitarian regime in the world from Shin's perspective. Shin was taught by guards to be a snitch, he regarded his mother as a rival for food, and he watched his own family members executed. Shin had no idea what it meant to live a civilized life. Harden gives an unparalleled insider picture of one of the world's darkest countries and a gripping story of perseverance, fortitude, and survival via his horrific description of Shin's life and incredible escape.