In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom [L0071]

2016 - PB Excellent condition. "I am most grateful for two things: that I was born in North Korea, and that I escaped from North Korea." - Yeonmi Park "One of the most harrowing stories I have ever heard - and one of the most inspiring." - The Bookseller "Park's remarkable and inspiring story shines a light on a country whose inhabitants live in misery beyond comprehension. Park's important memoir showcases the strength of the human spirit and one young woman's incredible determination to never be hungry again." -Publishers Weekly In In Order to Live, Yeonmi Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories. She tells with bravery and dignity for the first time the story of how she and her mother were betrayed and sold into sexual slavery in China and forced to suffer terrible psychological and physical hardship before they finally made their way to Seoul, South Korea-and to freedom. Park confronts her past with a startling resilience. In spite of everything, she has never stopped being proud of where she is from, and never stopped striving for a better life. Indeed, today she is a human rights activist working determinedly to bring attention to the oppression taking place in her home country. Park's testimony is heartbreaking and unimaginable, but never without hope. This is the human spirit at its most indomitable.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Read this book to educate yourself on what is really going on in this world. This is the truth told from the source, and it is eye-opening, devastating, but so so important! I knew a little bit about North Korea beforehand, but this book was an eye-opener! Never have I imagined what the truth is actually like for North Korean people, and it was devastating to read about famine, extreme poverty, and schools where even mathematics were turned into propaganda to enforce the North Korean regime and diminish the "nasty Yankees" from America. However, this story also tells us the nastiness of human trafficking in China and how Yeonmi and her family were forced into situations they have felt ashamed of ever since."; "I am not expert enough to validate every line of the book, but it's undoubtedly one of the most important books I've read in a long time because it provides a portrait of a country into which most of us have few opportunities to peer and helps us to understand not only abstractly or academically but personally what it's like to live under the kind of repressive regime most of us are fortunate enough to have never individually witnessed."; "Yeonmi managed to capture her story in an honest and beautiful way that left me speechless and emotional but I really was touched by the clarity and purity of her writing. After everything she has been through, Yeonmi can still see the beauty in life, the kindness in people and joy in simple things such as education and simply being free to choose. She is an absolute inspiration."