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Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
by
A New York Times bestseller, the shocking story of one of the few people born in a North Korean political prison to have escaped and survived.
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 Sovie ...more
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 Sovie ...more
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Paperback, 252 pages
Published
April 1st 2013
by Pan Books (UK)
(first published March 29th 2012)
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Start your review of Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West

I've been watching a lot of documentaries on North Korea recently and it had me wanting to pick up books on it. This was a very eye opening read, though I'd like to pick up books that are written directly by people who have fled North Korea, because this was more of a recount based on interviews with Shin Donghyuk. I can't even begin to imagine facing all that Shin Donghyuk faced being born and raised in one of the prison camps. From the cruel atmosphere to not really understanding what it means
...more

Ever wonder why the world didn't do more to end the horrors of Stalin's gulags or Hitler's work camps? Someday our children (or perhaps grandchildren or great-grandchildren) will ask the same question about our world today. Why doesn't the world do more to end the horrible inhumanity imposed on people in the work camps of North Korea? And the political prison camps in North Korea have existed twice as long as Stalins Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps, and the
...more

Jun 11, 2019
Ahmad Sharabiani
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
biography,
united-states,
21th-century,
non-fiction,
memoir,
asia,
adventure,
korean,
literature,
history
Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West, Blaine Harden
Shin Dong-hyuk (born Shin In Geun, 19 November 1982 or 1980) is a North Korean-born human rights activist. He is reputed to be the only known prisoner to have successfully escaped from a "total-control zone" grade internment camp in North Korea. He was the subject of a biography, Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey From North Korea to Freedom in the West, by former Washington Pos ...more
Shin Dong-hyuk (born Shin In Geun, 19 November 1982 or 1980) is a North Korean-born human rights activist. He is reputed to be the only known prisoner to have successfully escaped from a "total-control zone" grade internment camp in North Korea. He was the subject of a biography, Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey From North Korea to Freedom in the West, by former Washington Pos ...more

Dec 25, 2012
Petra is in abeyance on hiatus, just not here much
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Ostensibly getting rid of families, rather than individuals, considered undesirable by the regime, in actuality slave labour for the State.
A mixture of 1984, Animal Farm and the Nazi Dachau concentration camp. It is the story of North Korea and worse in every single respect than every dystopian novel you've ever read. Here, one is born, lives one's whole life and dies in a vast camp where fear rules through hunger and brutality. One man, only one, escaped and this is his story.
Not an easy book t ...more
A mixture of 1984, Animal Farm and the Nazi Dachau concentration camp. It is the story of North Korea and worse in every single respect than every dystopian novel you've ever read. Here, one is born, lives one's whole life and dies in a vast camp where fear rules through hunger and brutality. One man, only one, escaped and this is his story.
Not an easy book t ...more


Picture from documentary Camp 14
Imagine the Unimaginable
Imagine growing up with no comprehension, let alone experience of love or friendship, where every day you struggle for scraps of food, rest, and warmth, striving to avoiding abuse, imprisonment, and maybe execution.
Where you view your own mother as “competition for survival”, rather than a source of love, security, and comfort.
Where “redemption through snitching” and hard work is essential for survival, and you are inured to the punishmen ...more

When I hear the term "labor camps," I think of the Nazis. The Holocaust. Concentration camps -- something that happened decades ago and surely -- surely -- doesn't still exist. Right?
Wrong. Even though North Korea publicly insists that prison and work camps don't exist, evidence has been seen on satellite photos and on Google Earth. Additionally, numerous North Koreans who have witnessed the camps have defected and have testified to the hellish conditions there.
Shin was unlucky enough to be born ...more
Wrong. Even though North Korea publicly insists that prison and work camps don't exist, evidence has been seen on satellite photos and on Google Earth. Additionally, numerous North Koreans who have witnessed the camps have defected and have testified to the hellish conditions there.
Shin was unlucky enough to be born ...more

I think Shin's story is an important one, but the way that it's presented makes it a little tough to really connect with. Shin, born and raised in a North Korean labor camp, was the first person actually born in a camp to escape. Having had no prior knowledge of the outside world, he was raised, in his own words, as an animal, taught to rat out others, to feel little more than fear, with no affection for anyone. He does some pretty horrible things as a result and while I can logically understand
...more

I rate this book five stars not because it's beautiful literature or great story telling, but because it is a huge eye opener and important information. There are approximately 200,000 prisoners kept in camps or virtual prisons in North Korea. Many of the cellmates are the children and grandchildren of people who broke "the law" in Northern Korea. The theory is that it takes at least three generations of purging to get rid of the bad seed of law breakers. The description of the horrible control
...more

I'm split on this book.
On one hand, the subject matter is utterly compelling. Little is heard in mainstream media about these detention camps that hundreds of thousands of prisoners live in for (literally) generations. Entire Families are doomed because of the real or imagined actions of one, and apparently treason must be wiped out over three generations. So children are born in these camps between assigned parents and never learn filial love or even learn any emotional state higher than the a ...more
On one hand, the subject matter is utterly compelling. Little is heard in mainstream media about these detention camps that hundreds of thousands of prisoners live in for (literally) generations. Entire Families are doomed because of the real or imagined actions of one, and apparently treason must be wiped out over three generations. So children are born in these camps between assigned parents and never learn filial love or even learn any emotional state higher than the a ...more

5 stars...not because it's a "classic" but because I learned so much about North Korea. I knew North Korea was a horrible place but I had no knowledge of the prison camps. The conditions are horrific. For example: A classmate of Shin's (the man who's story is being told) was beat to death by a teacher in front of the class for having a few kernels of corn in her possession. Shin's mother and brother were hung, while Shin watched on, for having an escape plan. Shin is the one who reported them to
...more

This was not at all what I was expecting. From the marketing material, I expected a story of survival from the North Korean camps that, until now, has been largely untold. Knowing a little about the atrocities of the camp, I expect to this to be an emotionally charged book but, unfortunately, I found it quite the opposite.
From the beginning we learn that Shin is an unreliable narrator. The author is quick to point this out and explain to us how Shin has changed his story repeatedly over the yea ...more
From the beginning we learn that Shin is an unreliable narrator. The author is quick to point this out and explain to us how Shin has changed his story repeatedly over the yea ...more

4.5 stars.
This is an incredibly gripping book. While I was reading it, I was so immersed in the story that it took a while to come back to the real world.
I am glad I read Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy before reading this, because I already knew how bad the situation is for ordinary citizens in North Korea, and it was all the more powerful to realize that there are people who live even worse lives in the country's prison camps.
This is the story of Shin Dong-hyuk, a young man born and raised i ...more
This is an incredibly gripping book. While I was reading it, I was so immersed in the story that it took a while to come back to the real world.
I am glad I read Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy before reading this, because I already knew how bad the situation is for ordinary citizens in North Korea, and it was all the more powerful to realize that there are people who live even worse lives in the country's prison camps.
This is the story of Shin Dong-hyuk, a young man born and raised i ...more

Jan 27, 2019
Jo (The Book Geek)
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
inspirational,
non-fiction
I've read a few books now, focusing on North Korea and about the atrocities to humans, and to their own people in fact, that are allowed to be carried out. I have to say, the North korean regime makes me feel an incredible repungence towards them, and what actually makes this worse in every sense, is that the world does not seem to care.
Everything we know about about North Korea is worse than we could possibly imagine. Sure, there's brainwashing, but this book explores the utter horror that Shi ...more
Everything we know about about North Korea is worse than we could possibly imagine. Sure, there's brainwashing, but this book explores the utter horror that Shi ...more

“High School students in America debate why President Roosevelt didn't bomb the rail lines to Hitler's camps. Their children may ask, a generation from now, why the West stared at far clearer satellite images of Kim Jong Il's camps, and did nothing.”
No more brazen and poetic meaning could be found than reading this line from the book, once upon a time seems almost pertinent to this book. But once upon a time gives the semblance of fiction, and while this book eerily reminds one of a few George O ...more
No more brazen and poetic meaning could be found than reading this line from the book, once upon a time seems almost pertinent to this book. But once upon a time gives the semblance of fiction, and while this book eerily reminds one of a few George O ...more

The story of a man escaping a prison camp would pique my interest at any time, but add the detail that it's a North Korean camp and I'm definitely interested. After all, North Korea's been in the news lately. Perhaps you've noticed.
Shin Dong-hyuk was born into a prison labor camp. It's totalitarian rules and draconian punishment was life to him. He barely knew his father and viewed his mother as competition for food. He was raised to snitch out his fellow prisoners to the guards. This included ...more
Shin Dong-hyuk was born into a prison labor camp. It's totalitarian rules and draconian punishment was life to him. He barely knew his father and viewed his mother as competition for food. He was raised to snitch out his fellow prisoners to the guards. This included ...more

Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
Background
Camp 14 is a North Korean labor camp (gulag) with a security level of “Total Control Zone”.

Camp 14 is as large as a city with 40,000 prisoners.
Camp 14 has the highest security level (Total Control Zone) which means whoever lives in this camp will never leave it alive. Inmates remain imprisoned until they die. There is no parole. There are no release dates. Most inmates will never make it to their ...more

“I escaped physically,' he said. 'I haven't escaped psychologically.”
“High School students in America debate why President Roosevelt didn't bomb the rail lines to Hitler's camps. Their children may ask, a generation from now, why the West stared at far clearer satellite images of Kim Jong Il's camps, and did nothing.”
What makes Escape from Camp 14 an exceptionally important story to tell is it gives voice to the atrocities of a North Korean prison camp through the eyes of Shin Dong-hyuk, the r ...more
“High School students in America debate why President Roosevelt didn't bomb the rail lines to Hitler's camps. Their children may ask, a generation from now, why the West stared at far clearer satellite images of Kim Jong Il's camps, and did nothing.”
What makes Escape from Camp 14 an exceptionally important story to tell is it gives voice to the atrocities of a North Korean prison camp through the eyes of Shin Dong-hyuk, the r ...more

A picture is worth a thousand words, even when that picture is an amateurish drawing. The drawing in question shows a fourteen-year-old boy, stripped naked and suspended above a charcoal fire. He is secured to the ceiling by a rope tied around his wrists and a chain around his ankles. As he writhed in agony away from the flames, he was secured in place by one of his tormentors by means of a steel hook through his abdomen.
The boy’s name is Shin Dong-hyuk. The time is 1996. The place is North Ko ...more
The boy’s name is Shin Dong-hyuk. The time is 1996. The place is North Ko ...more

Oct 10, 2013
Ash Wednesday
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
aspiring dystopian writers
Recommended to Ash Wednesday by:
Petra is in abeyance on hiatus, just not here much
Shelves:
review,
foreign-setting,
young-adult,
heartbreaking,
disturbing-good,
dystopian,
non-fiction
4 STARS
Actually North Koreans have imgur, Dennis Rodman and Ken Jeong in Stevie Wonder glasses.

A couple of months back, Petra recommended this book to me after posting this link in Booklikes. I’m the least literate person I know when it comes to world politics but human depravity is always fascinating even within the har ...more
”Tibetans have the Dalai Lama and Richard Gere, (the) Burmese have Aung San Suu Kyi, (the) Darfurians have Mia Farrow and George Clooney. North Koreans have no one like that.
Actually North Koreans have imgur, Dennis Rodman and Ken Jeong in Stevie Wonder glasses.

A couple of months back, Petra recommended this book to me after posting this link in Booklikes. I’m the least literate person I know when it comes to world politics but human depravity is always fascinating even within the har ...more

I'm not sure how one should rate a journalistic account of some of the worst attrocities happening at this very second in our world, but I'll give it three stars... a sort of neutral ground. The writing is definitely not groundbreaking - it is the story that matters. Shin was born and raised in Camp 14, one of the worst of the 18 that NK has. He, obviously, suffered from brainwashing, but it was not the kind of it where your head is filled with mush about the ideology of the ruling party, but ra
...more

"Escape from Camp 14" is a disturbing account of the life of Shin Dong-hyuk, a North Korean who was born in a political prison camp and knew nothing about the outside world. Every day brought hours of constant labor with the hope that he managed to find enough food to survive and avoided beatings by the guards. The children had no idea that love or morality existed, and were taught by the guards to snitch on everyone, including their families. People had been imprisoned for three generations for
...more

I am surprised to find this book at the last glance to the bookstore in Hong Kong International Airport. I know it is already in my To-Read section in Goodreads. This is the only book I finished reading within 12 hours while I’m sitting next to beautiful clouds.
Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy introduces us how ordinary North Koreans escaped from DPRK, but Blaine Harden’s Escape from Camp 14 tells us how a criminal who was born in Camp 14 completed the mission impossible.
The world hasn't settl ...more
Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy introduces us how ordinary North Koreans escaped from DPRK, but Blaine Harden’s Escape from Camp 14 tells us how a criminal who was born in Camp 14 completed the mission impossible.
The world hasn't settl ...more

The author tells the life story of Shin Dong-hyuk, a young man born in one of North Korea’s labor camps. Most of the people in the camps are “irredeemable” political prisoners or their family members, and they are basically imprisoned for life. The conditions in the camps are nightmarish – forced labor, short rations, brainwashing, snitching, beatings, torture, rapes, executions.
The unforgivable crime Shin’s father had committed was being the brother of two young men who had fled south during a ...more
The unforgivable crime Shin’s father had committed was being the brother of two young men who had fled south during a ...more

4.5. Oh man, this book is really, really good. North Korea is such a strange country. Some of the things that you hear about it sound like they'd have to be fiction. This country is still mostly a mystery to most outsiders. The government keeps a very tight rein on what information gets out about the country. This book tells the true (true being the operative word, as this story is so unbelievable) story of Shin, a young man, who has lived his entire life in Camp 14, one of the infamous work cam
...more

Long story short, does anyone want to recommend me positive and happy books because wow, this book was not happy at all.
This book tells the story of Shin, the only known defector who was born into a labor camp and managed to escape. This book is pretty short but it's an incredibly hard book to read. A lot of very terrible things happen. Harden's writing style is very matter of fact which only makes it more challenging to read as he simply describes these horrible situations.
And I can't stop th ...more
This book tells the story of Shin, the only known defector who was born into a labor camp and managed to escape. This book is pretty short but it's an incredibly hard book to read. A lot of very terrible things happen. Harden's writing style is very matter of fact which only makes it more challenging to read as he simply describes these horrible situations.
And I can't stop th ...more

I feel so awkward giving this a star rating that I almost didn't.
I just don't know how to accurately review someone's life. Sure, I've read some biographies and nonfiction, and last year around this time, I read The Complete Maus. And it pretty much broke my heart.
This story did the same. It was such an informative and necessary read. I would recommend it to anyone. Harden did a good job at showing the reader Shin's story, while also showing the atrocities that are continuing to go on in North ...more
I just don't know how to accurately review someone's life. Sure, I've read some biographies and nonfiction, and last year around this time, I read The Complete Maus. And it pretty much broke my heart.
This story did the same. It was such an informative and necessary read. I would recommend it to anyone. Harden did a good job at showing the reader Shin's story, while also showing the atrocities that are continuing to go on in North ...more

I have been giving so many five star ratings lately!
This book was really amazing. You really get a picture of what life inside a North Korean gulag is like. It really put my problems into perspective. It also gave me a feeling of shame that the world does not do more to end these crimes against humanity.
I think this book should be required reading so the world is not so unaware of what really happens in North Korea. It's not all about the dictator, it's also about the people crushed beneath hi ...more
This book was really amazing. You really get a picture of what life inside a North Korean gulag is like. It really put my problems into perspective. It also gave me a feeling of shame that the world does not do more to end these crimes against humanity.
I think this book should be required reading so the world is not so unaware of what really happens in North Korea. It's not all about the dictator, it's also about the people crushed beneath hi ...more

This was another book, that while fascinating because I didn't have much knowledge of North Korea, but horrific as well. The subject matter was at times hard to read, to think that so many people are actually living like this is heartbreaking. Even those considered higher up in the hierarchy are not well off in comparison to the rest of the world, but they do have access to rice and blankets. The only family in any way profiting is the Kim dynasty, they of course have beautiful houses and yachts
...more

Nov 14, 2015
Hilly ♡
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
non-fiction,
korea
First of all I feel an extreme and complete disgust towards the North Korean regime, but after having read this memoir I'm even more ashamed because the world doesn't care.
Money? Yes, it is involved once again, and it's put in the first place ahead of human rights.
Surely I will continue to read books about this topic. It's good to have information since normally everyone ignores what is still happening in the 2000s in North Korea.
Maybe the news should stop talking and blabbing about the same da ...more
Money? Yes, it is involved once again, and it's put in the first place ahead of human rights.
Surely I will continue to read books about this topic. It's good to have information since normally everyone ignores what is still happening in the 2000s in North Korea.
Maybe the news should stop talking and blabbing about the same da ...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Play Book Tag: Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden - 3.5 stars | 6 | 9 | Oct 03, 2021 08:08PM | |
Book Club: Escape from Camp 14 | 1 | 5 | Jun 13, 2019 09:55AM | |
Goodreads Italia: GdL Saggistica Novembre-Dicembre 2017 - Fuga dal campo 14 | 60 | 149 | Apr 22, 2018 01:59PM | |
Noms & Novels: Korean Noms | 3 | 10 | Oct 25, 2014 04:48AM |
Harden is an author and journalist who worked for The Washington Post for 28 years as a correspondent in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia, as well as in New York and Seattle. He was also a national correspondent for The New York Times and writer for the Times Magazine. He has contributed to The Economist and PBS Frontline.
Harden's newest book, "Murder at the Mission: A Frontier Killing, Its Legacy ...more
Harden's newest book, "Murder at the Mission: A Frontier Killing, Its Legacy ...more
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“I am evolving from being an animal,' he said. 'But it is going very, very slowly. Sometime I try to cry and laugh like other people, just to see if it feels like anything. Yet tears don't come. Laughter doesn't come.”
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“High School students in America debate why President Roosevelt didn't bomb the rail lines to Hitler's camps. Their children may ask, a generation from now, why the West stared at far clearer satellite images of Kim Jong Il's camps, and did nothing.”
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