Escape from Camp 14
by Blaine Harden
- Percentage of approved critics who have given this book a positive review.
Critic Rating
75%
Critic Reviews: 29
-
- User rating from iDreamBooks & iTunes
Reader Rating
90%
Reader Ratings: 1409
Write a review
Synopsis
The shocking story of one of the few people born in a North Korean political prison to have escaped and survivedNorth Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have... more
About Blaine Harden
Published: March 29, 2012 by Penguin Press
Genre: History, Political & Social Sciences. Non-fiction. 224 pages
- All Critics: 29
- Positive: 24
- Negative: 5
-
The Guardian | 13 Apr 2012
But it's important to recognise the depth of misery in North Korea, not just to be aware of the horror of the Kim regime, but also to stand as a testament to the plight of a terrorised people.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
The New York Times | 11 Apr 2012
Mr. Shin had built his own memoir upon a gigantic lie...What’s more, the new book uses dialogue borrowed from Mr. Shin’s disingenuous 2007 version...The book ends on an uncertain note, with Mr. Shin’s delivering a slick, carefully prepared speech about his own ordeal...
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Kirkus Reviews | 10 Jan 2012
A terrifying story of brutal captivity and unremitting misery and the difficult adjustment to subsequent life in a very different place.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Salt Lake Tribune | 30 Mar 2012
Without interrupting the narrative, Harden skillfully weaves in details of North Korea’s history, politics and society, providing context for Shin’s plight.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Hudson Institute/WSJ | 6 Apr 2012
...a searing account of one man's incarceration and personal awakening in North Korea's highest-security prison.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Oregon Live | 31 Mar 2012
This book packs a huge wallop in its short 200 pages. The author sticks to the facts and avoids an emotionally exploitative tone -- but those facts are more than enough to rend at our hearts...
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
The Spectator | 21 Apr 2012
It’s not just the drawings at the back of Escape from Camp 14 that aren’t very good. In a lot of respects the book is not up to much either: it’s clunky, baldly written and repetitive.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Constant Geography Blog | 22 Apr 2012
Blaine Harden prose is tight and crisp.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Christian Science Monitor | 2 Apr 2012
A book without parallel, “Escape from Camp 14” is a riveting nightmare that bears witness to the worst inhumanity, an unbearable tragedy magnified by the fact that the horror continues at this very moment...
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Seattle Times | 13 Apr 2012
...the story of Shin's awakening, escape and new beginning, is a riveting, remarkable book that should be required reading in every high-school or college-civics class.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
The Washington Post | 27 Apr 2012
But here is where Harden’s account excels: He neither paints Shin as a hero nor depicts his survival as a triumph of the spirit. Shin suffers brutalities and is brutalized in the process.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Brisbane Times | 25 Mar 2012
Hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to have died in the camps, Harden records, in a work that deserves to be widely read.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Kirkus Reviews | 15 Jan 2012
A terrifying story of brutal captivity and unremitting misery and the difficult adjustment to subsequent life in a very different place.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Take Me Away | 2 Apr 2012
Escape From Camp 14 is an important human rights book that sheds light on this topic as well as on the plights of the individuals who are brave and lucky enough to escape the totalitarian regime.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Asia Literary Review
Shin’s account is echoed, and aspects of it verified, in other narratives. Perhaps his story, in reaching a worldwide audience, will at last draw more widespread attention to the desperate state of human rights in North Korea.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Star Tribune | 31 Mar 2012
Harden casts a harsh light on a moral embarrassment that has existed 12 times longer than the Nazi concentration camps. Readers won't be able to forget Shin's boyish, emancipated smile -- the new face of freedom trumping repression.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Bookingly Yours | 12 Apr 2012
I highly recommend this, totally a life-changing book that one would not stop reading until the last pages of the book.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
BC Books | 26 Mar 2012
it is a cautionary tale about the power of ignorance and a case study in the need for basic moral values such as honesty, love, the redeeming power of true friendship—while in our postmodern age we may dismiss these as old fashioned, without them human experience becomes meaningless.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Devourer of Books | 16 May 2012
Harden tells Shin’s story in a clear, concise, and often horrifying way. Please read this book.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
The Wall Street Journal | 5 Apr 2012
He writes in a direct, matter-of-fact style that puts the horrors he is relating in dark relief. He is equally explicit in describing Mr. Shin's difficulties in learning to succeed in a free society...
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Constant Geography | 22 Apr 2012
At, 193 pages, “Escape From Camp 14,” can be read in an afternoon. Images described will haunt for much longer.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
In Search of the End of the Sidewalk | 8 May 2012
Second, Harden doesn’t whitewash the tale to make it more comfortable for the reader. I appreciate that Shin’s story stands as it is.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave | 12 Apr 2012
Writing anyone’s biography without their full and frank commitment is always going to be difficult and to me it felt like there were many emotional elements of this story that weren’t touched upon.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Mother Daughter Book Club | 22 May 2012
It is shocking and at times gut wrenching...But it’s an important book that will give you faith in the human spirit as well as new perspective on North Korea...
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Dhruva Jaishankar | 5 May 2012
There are evident parallels between Shin’s story — retold by Harden in plain, unvarnished prose — and Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago...the book also recalls aspects of Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
KoreAm | 14 Mar 2012
But the most compelling part of Escape from Camp 14 actually begins in the latter half when Shin struggles to adjust to a new life outside North Korea and the organizations...that try to help him.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Meld Magazine | 22 May 2012
For those who don’t know much about North Korea, Escape from Camp 14 is packed with enough information to give any reader a comprehensive understanding of its history...But just a warning: this is not a read for the faint-hearted.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
Reading to Know | 8 May 2012
It is cruel, it is harsh and it is brutal....All in all, despite the harsh content within these pages, I have to highly recommend it.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14 -
The New York Times | 11 Apr 2012
Much of this book’s impact comes from its nonstop parade of ghastly details.
Full ReviewEscape from Camp 14