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

Blaine Harden

Mar 2012 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

With a New Foreword

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.

Ratings and reviews

I have such a hard time grasping the fact that this is still going on today.. People need to read this.. Not to understand.. Because there is no way one can.. But to bring awareness.. For those of us who care we can only hope for lives to be saved everywhere in the world.

I am not an avid reader by any means, yet I blew through this book and have learned more in the last day about the enigma that is North Korea than I have in the past 29 years I've been alive. I would encourage everyone to read this tale of an enduring soul that found his own way to freedom and still struggles to cope with his past and present. The author went to great lengths to create it and shows that their is hope for their people, though still a long road left for them to travel.

The real life Hunger Games. Amazing book, well written. In the end, info from the defectors is all we can rely on. Whether or not it is true is debatable. The author acknowledges the room for any error. All the same, if even ten percent of Shin's story is true, it makes me angry the lack of awareness we have to these human rights violations. As the author states, there is no celebrity bringing light to this.The story is scarier and creepier than any horror novel. At the same time, it will make you cry.

About the author

Blaine Harden is a reporter for PBS's FRONTLINE and a contributor to the Economist, and has served as The Washington Post's bureau chief in East Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa. He is the author of Africa: Dispatches from a Fragile Continent and A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia. He lives in Seattle, Washington.