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The Orphan Master's Son: A Novel Hardcover – Deckle Edge, January 10, 2012
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The Pulitzer Prize–winning, New York Times betselling novel of North Korea: an epic journey into the heart of the world’s most mysterious dictatorship.
“Imagine Charles Dickens paying a visit to Pyongyang, and you see the canvas on which [Adam] Johnson is painting here.”—The Washington Post
Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother—a singer “stolen” to Pyongyang—and an influential father who runs a work camp for orphans. Superiors in the North Korean state soon recognize the boy’s loyalty and keen instincts. Considering himself “a humble citizen of the greatest nation in the world,” Jun Do rises in the ranks. He becomes a professional kidnapper who must navigate the shifting rules, arbitrary violence, and baffling demands of his overlords in order to stay alive. Driven to the absolute limit of what any human being could endure, he boldly takes on the treacherous role of rival to Kim Jong Il in an attempt to save the woman he loves, Sun Moon, a legendary actress “so pure, she didn’t know what starving people looked like.”
Part breathless thriller, part story of innocence lost, part story of romantic love, The Orphan Master’s Son is also a riveting portrait of a world heretofore hidden from view: a North Korea rife with hunger, corruption, and casual cruelty but also camaraderie, stolen moments of beauty, and love.
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • WINNER OF THE DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE
Named ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR by more than a dozen publications, including The Washington Post • Entertainment Weekly • The Wall Street Journal • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle
Praise for The Orphan Master’s Son
“An exquisitely crafted novel that carries the reader on an adventuresome journey into the depths of totalitarian North Korea and into the most intimate spaces of the human heart.”—Pulitzer Prize citation
“Mr. Johnson has written a daring and remarkable novel, a novel that not only opens a frightening window on the mysterious kingdom of North Korea, but one that also excavates the very meaning of love and sacrifice.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“Rich with a sense of discovery . . . The Orphan Master’s Son has an early lead on novel of [the year].”—The Daily Beast
“This is a novel worth getting excited about.”—The Washington Post
“[A] ripping piece of fiction that is also an astute commentary on the nature of freedom, sacrifice, and glory.”—Elle
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherRandom House
- Publication dateJanuary 10, 2012
- Dimensions6.7 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
- ISBN-100812992792
- ISBN-13978-0812992793
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, January 2012: It is only January, but Adam Johnson’s astonishing novel is destined to cast a long shadow over the year in books. Jun Do is The Orphan Master’s Son, a North Korean citizen with a rough past who is working as a government-sanctioned kidnapper when we first meet him. He is hardly a sympathetic character, but sympathy is not author Johnson’s aim. In a totalitarian nation of random violence and bewildering caprice—a poor, gray place that nonetheless refers to itself as “the most glorious nation on earth”—an unnatural tension exists between a citizen’s national identity and his private life. Through Jun Do’s story we realize that beneath the weight of oppression and lies beats a heart not much different from our own—one that thirsts for love, acceptance, and hope—and that realization is at the heart of this shockingly believable, immersive, and thrilling novel. --Chris Schluep
Adam Johnson on The Orphan Master's Son
When I arrived at Pyongyang's Sunan Airport a few years ago, my head was still spinning from a landing on a runway lined with cattle, electric fences and the fuselages of other jets whose landings hadn't gone so well. Even though I'd spent three years writing and researching The Orphan Master's Son, I was unprepared for what I was about to encounter in “the most glorious nation in the world.”
I'd started writing about North Korea because of a fascination with propaganda and the way it prescribes an official narrative to an entire people. In Pyongyang, that narrative begins with the founding of a glorious nation under the fatherly guidance of Kim Il Sung, is followed by years of industry and sacrifice among its citizenry, so that when Kim Jong Il comes to power, all is strength, happiness and prosperity. It didn't matter that the story was a complete fiction--every citizen was forced to become a character whose motivations, desires and fears were dictated by this script. The labor camps were filled with those who hadn't played their parts, who'd spoken of deprivation instead of plenitude and the purest democracy.
When I visited places like Pyongyang, Kaesong City, Panmunjom and Myohyangsan, I understood that a genuine interaction with a North Korean citizen was unlikely, since contact with foreigners was illegal. As I walked the streets, not one person would risk a glance, a smile, even a pause in their daily routine. In the Puhung Metro Station, I wondered what happened to personal desires when they came into conflict with a national story. Was it possible to retain a personal identity in such conditions, and under what circumstances would a person reveal his or her true nature? These mysteries--of subsumed selves, of hidden lives, of rewritten longings--are the fuel of novels, and I felt a powerful desire to help reveal what a dynastic dictatorship had forced these people to conceal.
Of course, I could only speculate on those lives, filling the voids with research and imagination. Back home, I continued to read books and seek out personal accounts. Testimonies of gulag survivors like Kang Chol Hwan proved invaluable. But I found that most scholarship on the DPRK was dedicated to military, political and economic theory. Fewer were the books that focused directly on the people who daily endured such circumstances. Rarer were the narratives that tallied the personal cost of hidden emotions, abandoned relationships, forgotten identities. These stories I felt a personal duty to tell. Traveling to North Korea filled me with a sense that every person there, from the lowliest laborer to military leaders, had to surrender a rich private life in order to enact one pre-written by the Party. To capture this on the page, I created characters across all levels of society, from the orphan soldier to the Party leaders. And since Kim Jong Il had written the script for all of North Korea, my novel didn't make sense without writing his role as well.
Featured Photographs
Anti-tank devices seen while traveling south from Pyongyang toward PanmunjDPRK soldier
Air raid sirens
Revelutionary Martyr's Cemetery on Mount Taesong
Review
“An exquisitely crafted novel that carries the reader on an adventuresome journey into the depths of totalitarian North Korea and into the most intimate spaces of the human heart.” —Pulitzer Prize citation
“All of these elements—stylistic panache, technical daring, moral weight and an uncanny sense of the current moment—combine in Adam Johnson's The Orphan Master's Son, the single best work of fiction published in 2012. . . . The book's cunning, flair and pathos are testaments to the still-formidable power of the written word.” —The Wall Street Journal
“The Orphan Master’s Son performs an unusual form of sorcery, taking a frankly cruel and absurd reality and somehow converting it into a humane and believable fiction. It’s an epic feat of story-telling. It’s thrillingly written, and it's just thrilling period.” —Zadie Smith, Los Angeles Times
“A great novel can take implausible fact and turn it into entirely believable fiction. That’s the genius of The Orphan Master’s Son. Adam Johnson has taken the papier-mâché creation that is North Korea and turned it into a real and riveting place that readers will find unforgettable. This is a novel worth getting excited about, one which more than delivers on its pre-publication buzz… I haven’t liked a new novel this much in years, and I want to share the simple pleasure of reading the book. But I also think it’s an instructive lesson in how to paint a fictional world against a background of fact: The secret is research…It’s this process of re-imagination that makes the fictional locale so real and gives the novel an impact you could never achieve with a thousand newspaper stories. Johnson has painted in indelible colors the nightmare of Kim’s North Korea. When English readers want to understand what it was about — how people lived and died inside a cult of personality that committed unspeakable crimes against its citizens — I hope they will turn to this carefully documented story. The happy surprise is that they will find it such a page turner.” —The Washington Post
“Adam Johnson's remarkable novel The Orphan Master’s Son is set in North Korea, an entire nation that has conformed to the fictions spun by a dictator and his inner circle…Mr. Johnson is a wonderfully flexible writer who can pivot in a matter of lines from absurdity to atrocity…We don't know what's really going on in that strange place, but a disquieting glimpse suggesting what it must be like can be found in this brilliant and timely novel.” —Wall Street Journal
"A harrowing, clever, incomparable riff on life in Kim Jong Il's North Korea” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Magnificently accomplished…Part thriller, part coming-of-age novel, part romance, The Orphan Master’s Son is made sturdy by research…but what makes it so absorbing isn’t its documentary realism but the dark flight of the author's imagination…rich with a sense of discovery…The year is young, but The Orphan Master’s Son has an early lead on novel of 2012” —The Daily Beast
"Providing a rare glimpse into one of the world’s least known countries, Adam Johnson weaves a tale of hardship, romance, and redemption in North Korea in The Orphan Master’s Son." —National Geographic Traveler
“An incredibly vivid page-turner of a novel…Romance, coming-of-age tale, adventure and thriller all in one, this book is singular and not to be missed.” —The Huffington Post, 10 Best January Must-Reads
"The death of Kim Jong Il couldn't have come at a better time for novelist Adam Johnson. The Orphan Master’s Son is a richly textured political thriller about the hidden world of North Korea with all of its misery, violence and defiant acts of love under impossible circumstances. Stunning and evocative imagery abounds on every page.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Startling…Johnson's carefully layered story feels authentic...[He] writes light-footed prose, barely allowing harrowing glimpses of atrocity to register before accelerating onward. He resists the temptation to turn his subject matter into comic fodder, but never ignores the absurdity, provoking laughter with jagged edges that tends to die in your throat.” —Newsday
“Johnson’s novel accomplishes the seemingly impossible: an American writer has masterfully rendered the mysterious world of North Korea with the soul and savvy of a native, from its orphanages and its fishing boats to the kitchens of its high-ranking commanders. While oppressive propaganda echoes throughout, the tone never slides into caricature; if anything, the story unfolds with astounding empathy for those living in constant fear of imprisonment—or worse—but who manage to maintain their humanity against all odds. . . . Johnson juxtaposes the vicious atrocities of the regime with the tenderness of beauty, love, and hope.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[A] fantastical, careening tale…Informed by extensive research and travel to perhaps the most secretive nation on earth, Johnson has created a remarkable novel that encourages the willing suspension of disbelief.…Johnson winningly employs different voices, with the propagandizing national radio station serving as a mad Greek chorus. Part adventure, part coming-of-age tale, and part romance, The Orphan Master's Son is a triumph on every level.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Readers who enjoy a fast-paced political thriller will welcome this wild ride through the amazingly conflicted world that exists within the heavily guarded confines of North Korea. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“[A] vivid, violent portrait of a nation…[a] macabrely realistic, politically savvy, satirically spot-on saga. Johnson’s metathriller, spiked with gory intrigues and romantic subplots, is a ripping piece of fiction that is also an astute commentary on the nature of freedom, sacrifice, and glory in a world where everyone’s “a survivor who has nothing to live for.” —Elle
“Ambitious, violent, audacious—and stunningly good.” —O Magazine
“Adam Johnson has pulled off literary alchemy, first by setting his novel in North Korea, a country that few of us can imagine, then by producing such compelling characters whose lives unfold at breakneck speed. I was engrossed right to the amazing conclusion. The result is pure gold, a terrific novel.” —Abraham Verghese
“An addictive novel of daring ingenuity; a study of sacrifice and freedom in a citizen-eating dynasty; and a timely reminder that anonymous victims of oppression are also human beings who love. A brave and impressive book.” —David Mitchell
“I've never read anything like it. This is truly an amazing reading experience, a tremendous accomplishment. I could spend days talking about how much I love this book. It sounds like overstatement, but no. The Orphan Master's Son is a masterpiece.” —Charles Bock
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
As the oldest boy at Long Tomorrows, Jun Do had responsibilities- portioning the food, assigning bunks, renaming the new boys from the list of the 114 Grand Martyrs of the Revolution. Even so, the Orphan Master was serious about showing no favoritism to his son, the only boy at Long Tomorrows who wasn't an orphan. When the rabbit warren was dirty, it was Jun Do who spent the night locked in it. When boys wet their bunks, it was Jun Do who chipped the frozen piss off the floor. Jun Do didn't brag to the other boys that he was the son of the Orphan Master, rather than some kid dropped off by parents on their way to a 9-27 camp. If someone wanted to figure it out, it was pretty obvious- Jun Do had been there before all of them, and the reason he'd never been adopted was because his father would never let someone take his only son. And it made sense that after his mother was stolen to Pyongyang, his father had applied for the one position that would allow him to both earn a living and watch over his son.
The surest evidence that the woman in the photo was Jun Do's mother was the unrelenting way the Orphan Master singled him out for punishment. It could only mean that in Jun Do's face, the Orphan Master saw the woman in the picture, a daily reminder of the eternal hurt he felt from losing her. Only a father in that kind of pain could take a boy's shoes in winter. Only a true father, flesh and bone, could burn a son with the smoking end of a coal shovel.
Occasionally, a factory would adopt a group of kids, and in the spring, men with Chinese accents would come to make their picks. Other than that, anyone who could feed the boys and provide a bottle for the Orphan Master could have them for the day. In summer they filled sandbags and in winter they used metal bars to break sheets of ice from the docks. On the machining floors, for bowls of cold chap chai, they would shovel the coils of oily metal that sprayed from the industrial lathes. The railyard fed them best, though, spicy yukejang. One time, shoveling out boxcars, they swept up a powder that looked like salt. It wasn't until they started sweating that they turned red, their hands and faces, their teeth. The train had been filled with chemicals for the paint factory. For weeks, they were red.
And then in the year Juche 85, the floods came. Three weeks of rain, yet the loudspeakers said nothing of terraces collapsing, earth dams giving, villages cascading into one another. The Army was busy trying to save the Sungli 58 factory from the rising water, so the Long Tomorrows boys were given ropes and long-handled gaffs to try to snare people from the Chongjin River before they were washed into the harbor. The water was a roil of timber, petroleum tanks, and latrine barrels. A tractor tire turned in the water, a Soviet refrigerator. They heard the deep booms of boxcars tumbling along the river bottom. The canopy of a troop carrier spun past, a screaming family clinging to it. Then a young woman rose from the water, mouth wide but silent, and the orphan called Bo Song gaffed her arm-right away he was jerked into the current. Bo Song had come to the orphanage a frail boy, and when they discovered he had no hearing, Jun Do gave him the name Un Bo Song, after the 37th Martyr of the Revolution, who'd famously put mud in his ears so he couldn't hear the bullets as he charged the Japanese.
Still, the boys shouted "Bo Song, Bo Song" as they ran the riverbanks, racing beside the patch of river where Bo Song should have been. They ran past the outfall pipes of the Unification Steelworks and along the muddy berms of the Ryongsong's leach ponds, but Bo Song was never seen again. The boys stopped at the harbor, its dark waters ropy with corpses, thousands of them in the throes of the waves, looking like curds of sticky millet that start to flop and toss when the pan heats.
Though they didn't know it, this was the beginning of the famine-first went the power, then the train service. When the shock-work whistles stopped blowing, Jun Do knew it was bad. One day the fishing fleet went out and didn't come back. With winter came blackfinger and the old people went to sleep. These were just the first months, long before the bark-eaters. The loudspeakers called the famine an Arduous March, but that voice was piped in from Pyongyang. Jun Do had never heard anyone in Chongjin call it that. What was happening to them didn't need a name-it was everything, every fingernail you chewed and swallowed, every lift of an eyelid, every trip to the latrine where you tried to shit out wads of balled sawdust. When all hope was gone, the Orphan Master burned the bunks, the boys sleeping around a pot stove that glowed on their last night. In the morning, he flagged down a Soviet Tsir, the military truck they called "the crow" because of its black canvas canopy on the back. There were only a dozen boys left, a perfect fit in the back of the crow. All orphans are destined for the Army eventually. But this was how Jun Do, at fourteen, became a tunnel soldier, trained in the art of zero-light combat.
And that's where Officer So found him, eight years later. The old man actually came underground to get a look at Jun Do, who'd spent an overnighter with his team inside a tunnel that went ten kilometers under the DMZ, almost to the suburbs of Seoul. When exiting a tunnel, they'd always walk out backward, to let their eyes adjust, and he almost ran into Officer So, whose shoulders and big rib cage spoke of a person who'd come of age in the good times, before the Chollima campaigns.
"Are you Pak Jun Do?" he asked.
When Jun Do turned, a circle of light glowed behind the man's close- cropped white hair. The skin on his face was darker than his scalp or jaw, making it look like the man had just shaved off a beard and thick, wild hair. "That's me," Jun Do said.
"That's a Martyr's name," Officer So said. "Is this an orphan detail?"
Jun Do nodded his head. "It is," he said. "But I'm not an orphan."
Officer So's eyes fell upon the red taekwondo badge on Jun Do's chest.
"Fair enough," Officer So said and tossed him a sack.
In it were blue jeans, a yellow shirt with a polo pony, and shoes called Nikes that Jun Do recognized from long ago, when the orphanage was used to welcome ferry-loads of Koreans who had been lured back from Japan with promises of Party jobs and apartments in Pyongyang. The orphans would wave welcome banners and sing Party songs so that the Japanese Koreans would descend the gangway, despite the horrible state of Chongjin and the crows that were waiting to transport them all to kwan li so labor camps. It was like yesterday, watching those perfect boys with their new sneakers, finally coming home.
Jun Do held up the yellow shirt. "What am I supposed to do with this?" he asked.
"It's your new uniform," Officer So said. "You don't get seasick, do you?"
*
He didn't. They took a train to the eastern port of Cholhwang, where Officer So commandeered a fishing boat, the crew so frightened of their military guests that they wore their Kim Il Sung pins all the way across the sea to the coast of Japan. Upon the water, Jun Do saw small fish with wings and late morning fog so thick it took the words from your mouth. There were no loudspeakers blaring all day, and all the fishermen had portraits of their wives tattooed on their chests. The sea was spontaneous in a way he'd never seen before-it kept your body uncertain as to how you'd lean next, and yet you could become comfortable with that. The wind in the rigging seemed in communication with the waves shouldering the hull, and lying atop the wheelhouse under the stars at night, it seemed to Jun Do that this was a place a man could close his eyes and exhale.
Officer So had also brought along a man named Gil as their translator. Gil read Japanese novels on the deck and listened to headphones attached to a small cassette player. Only once did Jun Do try to speak to Gil, approaching him to ask what he was listening to. But before Jun Do could open his mouth, Gil stopped the player and said the word "Opera."
They were going to get someone-someone on a beach-and bring that someone home with them. That's all Officer So would say about their trip.
On the second day, darkness falling, they could see the distant lights of a town, but the Captain would take the boat no closer.
"This is Japan," he said. "I don't have charts for these waters."
"I'll tell you how close we get," Officer So said to the Captain, and with a fisherman sounding for the bottom, they made for the shore.
Jun Do got dressed, cinching the belt to keep the stiff jeans on.
"Are these the clothes of the last guy you kidnapped?" Jun Do asked.
Officer So said, "I haven't kidnapped anyone in years."
Jun Do felt his face muscles tighten, a sense of dread running through him.
"Relax," Officer So said. "I've done this a hundred times."
"Seriously?"
"Well, twenty-seven times."
Officer So had brought a little skiff along, and when they were close to the shore, he directed the fishermen to lower it. To the west, the sun was setting over North Korea, and it was cooling now, the wind shifting directions. The skiff was tiny, Jun Do thought, barely big enough for one person, let alone three and a struggling kidnap victim. With a pair of binoculars and a thermos, Officer So climbed down into the skiff. Gil followed. When Jun Do took his place next to Gil, black water lapped over the sides, and right away his shoes soaked through. He debated revealing that he couldn't swim.
Gil kept trying to get Jun Do to repeat phrases in Japanese. Good evening-Konban wa. Excuse me, I am lost-Chotto sumimasen, michi ni mayoimashita. Can you help me find my cat?-Watashi no neko ga maigo ni narimashita?
Officer So pointed their nose toward shore, the old man pushing the outboard motor, a tired Soviet Vpresna, way too hard. Turning north and running with the coast, the boat would lean shoreward as a swell lifted, then rock back toward open water as the wave set it down again.
Gil took the binoculars, but instead of training them on the beach, he studied the tall buildings, the way the downtown neon came to life.
"I tell you," Gil said. "There was no Arduous March in this place."
Jun Do and Officer So exchanged a look.
Officer So said to Gil, "Tell him what 'how are you' was again."
"Ogenki desu ka," Gil said.
"Ogenki desu ka," Jun Do repeated. "Ogenki desu ka."
"Say it like 'How are you, my fellow citizen?' Ogenki desu ka," Officer So said. "Not like how are you, I'm about to pluck you off this fucking beach."
Jun Do asked, "Is that what you call it, plucking?"
"A long time ago, that's what we called it." He put on a fake smile. "Just say it nice."
Jun Do said, "Why not send Gil? He's the one who speaks Japanese."
Officer So returned his eyes to the water. "You know why you're here."
Gil asked, "Why's he here?"
Officer So said, "Because he fights in the dark."
Gil turned to Jun Do. "You mean that's what you do, that's your career?" he asked.
"I lead an incursion team," Jun Do said. "Mostly we run in the dark, but yeah, there's fighting, too."
Gil said, "I thought my job was fucked up."
"What was your job?" Jun Do asked.
"Before I went to language school?" Gil asked. "Land mines."
"What, like defusing them?"
"I wish," Gil said.
They closed within a couple hundred meters of shore, then trolled along the beaches of Kagoshima Prefecture. The more the light faded, the more intricately Jun Do could see it reflected in the architecture of each wave that rolled them.
Gil lifted his hand. "There," he said. "There's somebody on the beach. A woman."
Officer So backed off the throttle and took the field glasses. He held them steady and fine-tuned them, his bushy white eyebrows lifting and falling as he focused. "No," he said, handing the binoculars back to Gil. "Look closer, it's two women. They're walking together."
Jun Do said, "I thought you were looking for a guy?"
"It doesn't matter," the old man said. "As long as the person's alone."
"What, we're supposed to grab just anybody?"
Officer So didn't answer. For a while, there was nothing but the sound of the Vpresna. Then Officer So said, "In my time, we had a whole division, a budget. I'm talking about a speedboat, a tranquilizing gun. We'd surveil, infiltrate, cherry-pick. We didn't pluck family types, and we never took children. I retired with a perfect record. Now look at me. I must be the only one left. I'll bet I'm the only one they could find who remembers this business."
Gil fixed on something on the beach. He wiped the lenses of the binoculars, but really it was too dark to see anything. He handed them to Jun Do. "What do you make out?" he asked.
When Jun Do lifted the binoculars, he could barely discern a male figure moving along the beach, near the water-he was just a lighter blur against a darker blur, really. Then some motion caught Jun Do's eye. An animal was racing down the beach toward the man-a dog it must've been, but it was big, the size of a wolf. The man did something and the dog ran away.
Jun Do turned to Officer So. "There's a man. He's got a dog with him."
Officer So sat up and put a hand on the outboard engine. "Is he alone?"
Jun Do nodded.
"Is the dog an akita?"
Jun Do didn't know his breeds. Once a week, the orphans had cleaned out a local dog farm. Dogs were filthy animals that would lunge for you at any opportunity-you could see where they'd attacked the posts of their pens, chewing through the wood with their fangs. That's all Jun Do needed to know about dogs.
Officer So said, "As long as the thing wags its tail. That's all you got to worry about."
Gil said, "The Japanese train their dogs to do little tricks. Say to the dog, Nice doggie, sit. Yoshi Yoshi. Osuwari Kawaii desu ne."
Jun Do said, "Will you shut up with the Japanese?"
Product details
- Publisher : Random House; First Edition (January 10, 2012)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 464 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0812992792
- ISBN-13 : 978-0812992793
- Item Weight : 1.71 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.7 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #797,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,901 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- #2,773 in Suspense Thrillers
- #130,617 in Genre Literature & Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Adam Johnson is a Professor of English at Stanford University. Winner of a Whiting Award and Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Academy in Berlin, he is the author of several books, including Fortune Smiles, which won the National Book Award, and the novel The Orphan Master’s Son, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in San Francisco with his family.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find this novel to be an amazing book with a clever intertwining of real-life events and fiction, and they appreciate its brilliant research and vivid depiction of life in North Korea. The story receives positive feedback for its depth of characters, particularly the sympathetic protagonist, and customers praise its powerful prose and realistic portrayal of daily life. The book's horror elements receive mixed reactions, with some appreciating its chilling account while others find it distressing.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as amazing and powerful, with one customer noting its utterly believable milieu.
"...But if you're in the mood for something different, thought-provoking, well-written, current, and also quite dark..." Read more
"...One of the most fascinating sections of the book is a section that is a steam of consciousness...." Read more
"...Now that I've read it, I'm happy to report that it was worth the risk. I was right to expect a sad ending, but the journey to the close was epic...." Read more
"...There is a reader’s guide at the end of the book as well as an interview with the author...." Read more
Customers praise the book's story quality, describing it as a spellbinding tale with clever intertwining of real-life events and fiction.
"...The difference with Orwell or Atwood's work is that this book describes an actual place, and it's clear that Johnson did meticulous planning to..." Read more
"...Another riveting book about the Russian gulag during Stalin is is A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn." Read more
"...The novel is a coming-of-age story, a spy story, and love story. There's an adventure-at-sea tale, a kidnapping tale, and redemption story...." Read more
"...There are many stories told that are woven together as skillfully as the quilt of the Senator’s wife (told during Jun Do’s visit to Texas)...." Read more
Customers find the book enlightening, praising its brilliant research and eye-opening content, with one customer noting how it immerses readers in a different world.
"...This is a book for adults. I won't like my kids near it until they are 17." Read more
"...how the layers of politics, existential angst, US diplomacy, human rights violations, propaganda, love and sacrifice, family relationships were..." Read more
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"...The book, as a piece of fiction, is engrossing and a great page turner, even considering the horrendous parts about torture and draining blood from..." Read more
Customers praise the book's insightful portrayal of life in North Korea, with one customer noting how it provides a revealing look into a vastly different culture.
"...many levels this book can be appreciated, I marveled at how the layers of politics, existential angst, US diplomacy, human rights violations,..." Read more
"...I enjoy a book with shifting perspectives, but the first time it happens in this book it is slightly unsettling...." Read more
"...synopsis, so I'll just say that I found it so incredibly interesting to read about a country which operates under a regime so vastly different from..." Read more
"...I felt the same way after reading Adam Johnson's brilliant book about North Korea, a place that seems to have been transported to Earth from an..." Read more
Customers appreciate the character development in the book, noting the depth and sympathy of the protagonist.
"...this orphan that he truly takes form as a character and a fully fleshed out human being...." Read more
"...I felt the love, joy, pain, and sorrow of the characters and was very deeply moved by the writing...." Read more
"...There is a narcissistic cult leader, a totalitarian government, and a repressed people (physically) who have to deal with an inherent evolution..." Read more
"...Characters take names of other characters as personal names in N. Korea do not have the personal meaning that is universally accepted...." Read more
Customers praise the book's visual style, noting its vivid and realistic portrayal of daily life, with one customer highlighting its colorful descriptions.
"...Master's Son," the 2012 debut novel by Adam Johnson, is a powerful look at the country, the lifestyle of the people, and the terror that comes with..." Read more
"...A work of art and a sure classic." Read more
"...life, where things, good and bad, happen with seemingly no reason, are vivid...." Read more
"...And this book is plenty dark." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the story length of the book, with some praising its powerful prose and excellent language use, while others find it hard to follow.
"...if you're in the mood for something different, thought-provoking, well-written, current, and also quite dark..." Read more
"...The storyline is not plausible but the focus on canned peaches as a delicacy, the now lack of peaches, the level of starvation, eating birds for a..." Read more
"...Emphatically yes. It is a brilliant piece of writing, conjuring such influences as Kafka and Orwell, and perhaps a little David Foster Wallace,..." Read more
"...Johnson's writing is wonderful, he changes his voice with perspectives, whether it is from the loudspeaker's, a biographer (a specialized torturer)..." Read more
Customers have mixed reactions to the horror elements in the book, with some finding it a chilling account of life, while others describe it as disturbing brutality and torture that makes for grim reading.
"...The horrors are difficult to accept and comprehend, but N Korea as one of the most backward nation and disregard for its own citizens and humanity..." Read more
"...different, thought-provoking, well-written, current, and also quite dark (but not unrelentingly so--there are many moments of hope and joy) then..." Read more
"...It is extremely funny in parts, yet repulsive in its callous brutality. So my second question: did I enjoy it? Almost equally emphatically, no...." Read more
"...The book cover tells it right on. I felt the love, joy, pain, and sorrow of the characters and was very deeply moved by the writing...." Read more
Reviews with images

Intriguing! Take a journey through North Korea through the eyes of a citizen
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2014I picked up this book not knowing exactly what to expect. I enjoyed the first half of the book for the most part, but felt like the character of Jun Do was a little two-dimensional. I had a hard time understanding his motives and thoughts (especially why on earth he didn't defect ... he certainly had the means and opportunity many times early on in the story, and, at that point, no one at home who would miss him or be endangered if he left). Moreover, his adventures stretched the imagination a bit (this only continued in the second half, as he becomes a personal acquaintance of ... well, I guess I shouldn't spoil it!). For me, at least, the second half really picked up and became a gripping page turner. Part suspense novel, part love story, even sometimes a (dark) comedy ... all set within a dystopia straight out of an Orwell novel (I was also reminded a bit of Margaret Atwood's beautifully chilling Handmaid's Tale). The difference with Orwell or Atwood's work is that this book describes an actual place, and it's clear that Johnson did meticulous planning to prepare for this book. While there are obvious limitations to writing about a country about which you have largely only second-hand knowledge, it rang true to what I have read and understand about the country (although I am no expert on North Korea either, I've always had a strange fascination with this strange country). Much of the media coverage would have you think that North Korea is occupied by just one man (whichever generation Kim is in charge), as little attention is paid to the average "John Doe", except for in terms of shocking, but still mind-numbing statistics (I'm reminded of the chilling quote attributed to Stalin: the death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic). I fear sometimes that we become too numb to statistics, no matter how terrifying the underlying reality they represent.
Johnson's novel attempts, successfully I might add, to correct this imbalance by focusing explicitly on a North Korean "John Doe" (and in case you missed the reference, he's named "Jun Do", and in case you REALLY miss it, the characters talk about the meaning of "John Doe" at one point!). As I said, at least for me, it took me a little while to fully embrace Jun Do ... in many ways, it is not until others start to embrace this orphan that he truly takes form as a character and a fully fleshed out human being. By the end, you will be hanging on every word, cheering, crying, and thinking about his fate and that of those around him. I find it curious that North Korea has raised such a stink about Seth Rogen's upcoming movie about North Korea ... the movie may be good, it may be bad, but I have a hard time imagining that it will provide thought-provoking political commentary, based on his other works at least. Instead, it is a book like Johnson's that provides about as complete and airtight a condemnation of the entity that is North Korea that really should be worrisome to the oligarchs in charge.
That said, while this is a book set in North Korea about North Korea, I couldn't help but think that--at least to some degree--there are many themes in this book that are actually quite universal. Questions like: do we really know the people we love, and do they really know us? When does a popular narrative become a pervasive part of the national or individual consciousness? Are we defined by our secrets, or the intimate details we share? Issues and ideas such as identity, secrecy, patriotism, love, desire, family, fear, and pain ... these are not just limited to North Korea, obviously. In some ways, this brings to mind not just Orwell, but works such as Lord of the Flies, which are not meant as voyeuristic "adventure stories", but rather meant to provide insights on the human psyche when stripped away of all conventions and institutions we would normally associate with civilization.
All in all, and exciting and thought-provoking book. Judging from the reviews, it's not for everyone (if you're looking for light beach reading, this is probably not it). But if you're in the mood for something different, thought-provoking, well-written, current, and also quite dark (but not unrelentingly so--there are many moments of hope and joy) then this might be the book for you.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2013As a novel I need to give this book a four star review, as historical fiction The Orphan Master's Son earns five stars. A number of readers criticize the book for not being believable, and finding difficult to believe and slow. The story requires a level of suspended disbelief to accept the story. Adam Johnson decided to write the first half of the book through several distinct stories from the perspective of a single individual. The events themselves are not believable or plausible, let alone have a single individual experience each of these events. However, what is amazing are all of the events are based on interviews of individuals who managed to leave North Korea, visits to the country, and other sources. Treatment of North Koreans by the Dear Leader's dictatorship is unbelievable. The horrors are difficult to accept and comprehend, but N Korea as one of the most backward nation and disregard for its own citizens and humanity is real.
The second half of the story follows the life of the main character and at times is a somewhat confusing because the storyline is not linear. Characters take names of other characters as personal names in N. Korea do not have the personal meaning that is universally accepted. This use of taking names or having new names assigned adds difficulty in following characters and knowing individuals. But that is part of the story or tragedy of N Korea.
One of the most fascinating sections of the book is a section that is a steam of consciousness. While being drugged and beaten for a confession the lead character drifts away describing his thoughts and drifting away from reality. The main storyline leads from the N. Korean countryside to Pyongyang. The storyline is not plausible but the focus on canned peaches as a delicacy, the now lack of peaches, the level of starvation, eating birds for a meal, a family glad to have a squirrel for dinner, state television wired into every home ala 1984, makes the book an essential read. The storyline and dialogue is not the best, but is well worth reading and an important story.
As a companion read Escape From Camp 14 by Blaine Harden a biography of the only individual to escape from a N Korean prison labor camp. This individual was born in a labor camp because of the digressions against the state.by his grandparents. Another riveting book about the Russian gulag during Stalin is is A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Top reviews from other countries
- Mle Sheila BennettReviewed in France on January 18, 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars A very disturbing book
Life in North Korea as we wouldn't want to live it. A fascinating read; it deserved thePulitzer Prize for fiction 2013. Arrived in perfect condition and on time
-
OparazzoReviewed in Germany on May 2, 2013
5.0 out of 5 stars Mensch unter Unmenschen
Nordkorea - was assoziieren wir nicht alles damit! Eines der ärmsten Länder der Welt mit einer chronisch unterernährten Bevölkerung, gesichtslose Arbeitermassen, denen man eigenständiges Denken gründlich und nachhaltig ausgetrieben hat, grausame Arbeitslager, die man lebend nicht mehr verlässt, sobald man ihre Pforten durchschritten hat: Unterm Strich ein Großversuch, in dem ein sadistischer Diktator mit grenzenloser Machtfülle austestet, wieviel Leiden man einer Bevölkerung zumuten kann.
Das sind die Eckpunkte unserer Vorstellungen von diesem seltsamen Land. Adam Johnson ist es mit "The Orphan Master's Son" gelungen, diese grobe Zeichnung eindrucksvoll farbig auszugestalten. Jun Do, der Waise, durchläuft die koreanische "Karriereleiter" von ganz unten bis ganz oben und wieder zurück. Dabei gelingt ihm sogar das Unmögliche, nämlich ein Arbeitslager lebend zu verlassen und mit Billigung des Geliebten Führers eine neue Identität anzunehmen. Für Jun Do wird aus einer Realität eine andere Realität, denn die Wirklichkeit in Nordkorea ist das, was der Geliebte Führer als solche bezeichnet. Jun Do entdeckt zum ersten Mal, dass es so etwas wie Gefühle für andere Menschen außer dem Geliebten Führer gibt, etwas, was sich Nordkoreaner eigentlich nicht leisten können. Aber: "Wenn der Geliebte Führer will, dass du mehr verlierst, dann gibt er dir mehr zu verlieren", das ist Teil des Spiels. Und doch gibt es etwas, das sich Jun Do nicht mehr nehmen lassen wird.
"The Orphan Master's Son" ist wirklich harte Kost, härter als "Escape from Camp 14" von Blaine Harden. Die Überlebenskämpfe der Lagerinsassen und die Arbeitsmethoden der Verhörspezialisten führen einen beim Lesen immer wieder an die Grenzen des Verkraftbaren. Dennoch bringen wir sogar für die Beweggründe und Sorgen mancher Täter mehr und mehr Verständnis auf - es muss im vielen Menschen etwas geben, das selbst ein so perfektioniertes Kontrollsystem nicht zerstören kann. Und sogar der Humor kommt nicht zu kurz - die aberwitzige Propaganda und die sonderbaren Vorstellungen des Geliebten Führers und seiner Paladine bieten reichlich Futter.
Im Anhang erläutert Adam Johnson in einem Interview, wie er das, was er vor Ort und von entkommenen Nordkoreanern erfahren hat, nach bestem Wissen und Gewissen fiktionalisiert hat. Aber, wie er selber sagt, erst wenn Nordkoreaner selbst die Möglichkeit haben werden, Romane über ihr Schicksal zu schreiben, werden wir wissen, was in den Menschen dort vorgegangen ist. Bis dahin können wir uns glücklich schätzen, dass es Romane wie diesen gibt.
- Barbara DavieReviewed in Australia on June 17, 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing
Very disturbing but very well written. From my Cody position in a very safe environment, it's hard to imagine life as depicted in this novel. The interview at the end when the author says he toned down some of the cruel ways in the camps made it all the more chilling. Very very sad to think this is the life for many in North Korea.
- BOOK BUYERReviewed in Italy on February 8, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Fast delivery.
Fast delivery. Ordered 02Feb2022. Arrived 08Feb2022. Package not damaged. Amazon-Rebuy Recommerce Services did excellent work. G'day.
- Nabam BReviewed in India on May 19, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Patience is Worth it. Complete the Book.
After reading this book for three days, continuously, I knew I had to write this review.
This book left a deep impression on me ; of Hurt, sacrifice, brutality and sadness. I'm haunted even in my dreams!
The protagonist here, is a man, truthful, innocent and Prisoner, his whole life, except when he was on waters for short duration. Himself a prisoner, never knew what freedom was, helped another person to free herself and escape from the brutal and oppressive land of North Korea.
What more could I say ? Its a Fiction but the truth in this book is not. North Korea, after some research of mine, has turned out to be land of executions of people and family and defections.
I'm thankful to Mr Adam for writing this Novel. I'm glad I grabbed this one.