The Orphan Master's Son

from TerriBooks

I know very little about North Korea, and I can't tell how close the lives and places described in this novel are to actual life there. But after a while, it didn't matter. More than a novel about a particular culture, this is an exploration of identity, and how story forms personal and national ...

from msf59

"The most glorious nation in the world." Jun Do was born and raised in a North Korean orphan work camp, where his father was in command. We then follow this young man through a serpentine path, spiked with fear and danger. He is trained in the military, becomes a guard in the prison mines, then a...

from TheLostEntwife

Not since reading Wild Swans have I been as deeply affected as I was while reading The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson. The story of Pak Jun Do is a powerful, moving story and opened my eyes to so very much I did not know. I did not know much about North Korea, Kim Jong Il, or really anything...

from Oregonreader

This is one of those stories that stays with you after you've finished reading it. It left me speechless, struggling to define my reactions to it. It is a powerful, disturbing and very satisfying book. Set in North Korea, a place I know little about beyond what I've picked up in the news, Johnson...

from TheAmpersand

In the same way that it's a minor miracle that Lawrence Wright's "Going Clear," an expose of the aggressively litigious Church of Scientology exists, it's a minor miracle that Adam Johnson's "The Orphan Master's Son" exists. The interview that's included in the "Reader's Circle" edition of the bo...