One is left to wonder what would be best for North Koreans, especially since most appear less than truly happy, if one is to believe the accounts that Park offers herein. It was only when I started writing this book that I refound hope in humanity, and especially in men. Even after Yeonmi and her mother escaped to South Korea, the process of getting used to life in a freer and much more prosperous society was very hard. These days, a lot of people said North Korea is just a repressive country ruled by a fat dude with bad haircut and threaten to launch nuclear every year as if it’s an anniversary event. When viewed in its entirety: escape, survival, and victory - this story definitely has a miraculous component.

That this is also a buddy read with a good friend of mine only adds to the interest when it was suggested I read this memoir by Yeonmi Park. Photograph: Beowulf Sheehan View image in fullscreen Yeonmi Park: ‘Until I started writing, I just shut my mind off. Finally they are almost in South Korea when they are found by Chinese and Korean missionaries who arranged for their passage and papers for South Korea, meanwhile thoroughly indoctrinating them into Christianity as part of their compulsory education-for-South Korea programme. If Park adds some lies here and there to make her book more empowering and appealing to the public, shouldn't it rise any kind of suspicion about the overall truthfulness of the story? Yeonmi went through all the unimaginable nightmares when she was ONLY 13 years old, and she was strong enough to survive and tell us her story today and helps us see the reality our world is leaving today.

But Yeonmi's struggles were only just beginning as her mother was almost immediately raped and then they were bought and sold, and abused by successive waves of human traffickers. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. In another version, in an interview with a San Francisco radio station, Park says, "I escaped with my mum and father – the three of us. Such an exceptional book which reminded me to not take my freedom for granted and to be grateful for the little things in life.

An underlying theme of political ideology surely finds its way into the discussion, from the Korean War, Soviet-style communism, to the eventual isolated sentimentality that even Mao would not have recognised.Yeonmi wrote this book with the purpose that more people will listen to her story and know the reality that resides in North Korea even though this means putting her life in danger as she's now being branded as a public enemy to the whole country where she's born.