This was a difficult-to-read difficult-to-put-down book. It is the story of Pak Jun Do, a North Korean orphan. He isn't really an orphan, but was raised as one. The story is difficult to read due to the many bad things that happen in the story, but it is difficult to put down because you want to know how Jun Do will fare. You are rooting for him despite the things he has done in his life. The life in North Korea is portrayed as one of crude, heavy-handed government and terrified, paranoid (rightfully so) citizens who are almost universally lacking in basic needs. How tragic it would be to explain to your eight year old child that at some point a parent might be forced to denounce the other parent in order to protect the lives of their children.
As a child, all communist countries were suspect and it is still easy for me to make the leap from fiction to reality in this book. I hope that there is a lot of fiction in this book rather than fact.
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