getAbstract Summary: Get the key points from this book in less than 10 minutes.

This story offers a rare look into a corner of the world beyond polite societies. Noted journalist Blaine Harden tells the saga of Shin Dong-hyuk, a boy who grew up in a North Korean labor camp for political dissidents. He was raised in deprivation, depravity and hopelessness, and endured punishments so relentless you will wonder, as you read, why he didn't kill himself. In fact, because he was endlessly starved, his will to live flickered like the single light bulb in his home's shared kitchen. This dark memoir, like any personal history of inhumanity, challenges you not to forget, not to dismiss and not to look away. You may well wonder if you could have survived in such a place. getAbstract finds that this gripping book puts political life in the West in perspective. It offers a stark sense of what security and privacy mean. Even more, it is a scream in the dead of night, a heart's-eye view of massive inhumanity and a call to action against a vicious rogue kingdom.

Book Publisher:

Viking Press