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Loading... The Hard Road Out: One Woman’s Escape From North Koreaby Jihyun Park, Sarah Baldwin-Beneich (Translator), Seh-lynn Chai (Author)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. one ex North Korean woman interviewing another. very difficult story--life in North Korea and her escape, caught into "slavery", prostitution, escape from her "husband", trying to get her child, her mother's trying to escape & sold as a "wife" to a Chinese...Harrowing story ( ) Jihyun Park's biography of her life in North Korea, the terrors of living in an authoritarian regime, and her "escape" into slavery after being trafficed into China, is both horrifying and inspirational. That she found asylum and a new life in Britain is wonderful, that she lost and is separated from so many family members, tragic. I'm glad she's found a haven, now, in Lancashire. Her decision to join the UK's Conservative Party and run as their local government candidate, whilst still one I feel saddened by, makes sense in the context of the suffering she experienced under the rule of notionally socialist North Korea. Her story exemplifies the need for a kinder immigration and asylum system than the one so poorly and punitively managed by the political party she represents. no reviews | add a review
The harrowing story of a woman who escaped famine and terror in North Korea, not once but twice. 'A gripping, suspenseful and cathartic memoir that tells a story of pain and perseverance and makes the moral case for asylum.' David Lammy MP North Korea is an open-air prison from which there is no escape. Only a handful of men and women have succeeded. Jihyun Park is one of these rare survivors. Twice she left the land of the 'socialist miracle' to flee famine and dictatorship. By the age of 29 she had already witnessed a lifetime of suffering. Family members had died of starvation; her brother was beaten nearly to death by soldiers. Even smiling and laughing was discouraged. The first time she ran, she was forced abandon her father on his deathbed - crossing the border under a hail of bullets. In China she was sold to a farmer, with whom she had a son, before being denounced and forcibly returned to North Korea. Six months later guards abandoned her, injured, outside a prison camp. She recovered and returned China to seek her son, now six, before attempting to navigate the long, hard road through the Gobi Desert and into Mongolia. Clear-eyed and resolute, Jihyun's extraordinary story reveals a Korea far removed from the talk of nuclear weapons and economic sanctions. She remains sanguine despite the hardship. Recalling life's tiny pleasures even at her darkest moments, she manages to instill her tale with incredible grace and humanity. Beautifully written with South Korean compatriot Seh-lynn Chai, this compelling book offers a stark lesson in determination, and ultimately in the importance of asylum. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)362.87092Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Social problems of & services to groups of people Problems of and services to other groupsLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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