by Adam Johnson, 2012
Brand new novel (2012) about the nightmare of North Korea. Real hero is Pak Jun Do, an orphan who grows up to be a tunnel fighter, where he learns to be in the dark; then a kidnapper – which he hated – they take row boats ashore in Japan and kidnap people wanted by the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. Then his favorite time as a radio interpreter on a fishing boat. He loved listening to the American girl who was rowing around the world with her friend. One would row during the day and the other would row at night – all night every night. With her eyes closed. She ends up getting taken by the N. Koreans and Kim Jon Il keeps her in an underground cell translating his books into English.
Then to Texas with some other powerful North Koreans to meet with a Senator and his wife. They fail at their mission and he ends up in N. Korean prison – working the mines. When prisoners become so weak they can no longer work, they are taken and their blood is drained. He escapes the mines by killing Commander Ga in self-defense and putting on his clothes and going to the warden – who lets him out. He is taken to his (Commander Ga’s) home on a hill in Pyongyang where he assumes the identity wife & children Sun-Moon the national actress. He falls in love with Sun-Moon and she falls in love with him. He helps her and her children defect to America. He is taken to Division 42 and tortured almost to death. An interrogator finally understands the nightmare that is N. Korea and the hopelessness and puts him in the autopilot chair where they sit side-by-side. Commander Ga/Pak Jun Do cranks it up to 10 which is the lethal dose. The Interrogator cranks his only to 6 1/2. He’s hoping to lobotomize himself where he can then be sent to the prison for lobotomized people and maybe find a wife. With no recollection of the horrors he has participated in.
The people of N. Korea are so brainwashed. They are bombarded with propaganda and lies over loudspeakers. They are starving. They have no freedom. They are rounded up and taken to work camps whenever there is a need. On and on – terrible lives.
