Book review: Escape from Camp 14

Title:  Escape from Camp 14
Author: Blaine Harden
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Summary: An amazing (and true) story of a North Korean man's escape from a prison camp to the United States.  Shin Dong-hyuk was born in one of North Korea's prison camps.  He's the first known person that was born and raised in one of these camps that escaped and lived to tell about it.

My review:  I think this is my first review of a non-fiction book on this blog.  I'm not averse to non-fiction at all, I think I just have a perception that they require more concentration and so I'm hesitant to commit to them because I don't have a lot of energy or concentration by the end of the day.  But I read this based on a recommendation from a friend and I couldn't resist at least trying it.

This book was fascinating for some many reasons.  One, it shows the strength of the human spirit. Two, I knew that North Korea was hardly Shangri-La, but I don't think I was truly aware of the atrocities and the terrible camps.

This book is not upbeat to say the least.  I had to switch between this and The Last Anniversary at times.  That being said, it was still great, if only for the description of life within the camp.  The details on his life in America were a little vague, but the rest was fascinating.  Highly recommended.