The Orphan Master's Son - Hardcover

Johnson, Adam

4.06

100,123 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1410448282 ISBN 13: 9781410448286

Publisher: Wheeler Pub Inc, 2012

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"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 year is young, but "The Orphan Master's Son" has an early lead on novel of 2012." - "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"

An epic novel and a thrilling literary discovery, "The Orphan Master's Son" follows a young man's journey through the icy waters, dark tunnels, and eerie spy chambers of the world's most mysterious dictatorship, North Korea.
Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother--a singer "stolen" to Pyongyang--and an influential father who runs Long Tomorrows, a work camp for orphans. There the boy is given his first taste of power, picking which orphans eat first and which will be lent out for manual labor. Recognized for his loyalty and keen instincts, Jun Do comes to the attention of superiors in the state, rises in the ranks, and starts on a road from which there will be no return.
Considering himself "a humble citizen of the greatest nation in the world," Jun Do becomes a professional kidnapper who must navigate the shifting rules, arbitrary violence, and baffling demands of his Korean 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. A towering literary achievement, "The Orphan Master's Son" ushers Adam Johnson into the small group of today's greatest writers.

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Review:

PRAISE FOR ADAM JOHNSON
Emporium
"Impossible to forget . . . Adam Johnson unleashes a big, thrilling, and fully realized talent."--Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "A Visit from the Goon Squad"
"Remarkable . . . Johnson's heroes are isolated and alienated, but are capable of feeling just the right emotion at just the right time.""--The New Yorker"
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"Exhibits a fierce talent, showcasing Johnson's quirky humor and slicing insight.""--Publishers Weekly"
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Parasites Like Us
"[Johnson's] characters are wonderfully weird and charming, and he is so witty a storyteller that this strange novel manages to captivate.""--The Washington Post"
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"Teeming with clever conceits, superb turns of phrase, observations as precise as Updike's, and tonal echoes of Vonnegut, Boyle, and George Sanders . . . The author is wise, weird and worth watching.""--Seattle Weekly"
"Brilliance to burn.""--The New York Times Book Review"rs, ch

"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, author of "Cutting for Stone"
"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--"The Orphan Master's Son" is a brave and impressive book."--David Mitchell, author of "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet"
"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, author of "Beautiful Children "
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"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. The book traces the journey of Jun Do, who for years lives according to the violent dictates of the state, as a tunnel expert who can fight in the dark, a kidnapper, radio operator, tenuous hero, and foreign dignitary before eventually taking his fate into his own hands. In one of the book's most poignant moments, a government interrogator, who tortures innocent citizens on a daily basis, remembers his own childhood and the way in which his father explained the inexpl

"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-mache 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"
"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, o

Book Description:

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2013 - the ground-breaking story about a young man's passage through the prison camps and dictatorship of North Korea

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