A Thousand Miles to Freedom

April 15, 2015
A sobering account of survival of the fittest in North Korea by a young woman on the run for nearly a decade. Translated originally from the French edition and reading like a slender, exciting, first-person French novel, this chronicle by Eunsun Kim (a nom de plume) re-creates in immediate-feeling detail the horrific conditions of starvation that prompted her mother to flee with the author and her sister across the Tumen River bordering China in the winter of 1998. The author, then 11 years old but appearing much younger due to her blighted growth caused by malnutrition, had been fairly oblivious to the increasingly dire conditions in North Korea as the famine gripped the country and food rations were cut back. Having lost the family's beloved father, then the grandparents, the author's mother nearly lost all hope, until she resolved to defect to China and become a traitor to her country-knowing little about the outside world and how hoodwinked the regimes of presidents Kim Il-sung (d. 1994) and his son Kim Jong-il kept the North Korean residents. Rejected by relatives when they showed up at an aunt's house, the mother and two daughters lived on the streets in Rajin until the Tumen froze again and they could scurry across the river. Soon taken advantage of by a hardened procuress and forced into marriage with a Chinese peasant, the author's mother had to bear a son in order to gain some freedom. The women dispersed into teeming Chinese cities to find jobs and gain false papers. It took years to make the necessary fortune required to pay smugglers to take them over the Mongolian border, at incredible risk and danger. Yet the welcome South Korea tendered toward the family was heartening, even if the South Koreans tended to look down on these poor refugees. An urgent cry for compassion for the author's fellow North Koreans, trapped and strangled of liberty and life.

COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2015

The United States harbors a fascination with North Korea that was rekindled with the change of leadership in late 2011; the death of Kim Jong-il and the ascension of his son Kim Jong-un resulted in extensive media attention. Joseph Kim's Under the Same Sky and Eunsun Kim's A Thousand Miles to Freedom (no relation between the authors) add to this wave of recent consideration by detailing the complexities of life as North Korean defectors. Both authors enjoyed their early childhoods in North Korea and reminisce frequently about school and memories of treats such as ice cream and candy. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, however, both writers faced difficult times, eventually sneaking across the guarded North Korean border into China, where they hid from authorities before traveling to the United States and South Korea, respectively. In spite of the similar story lines, the memoirs are substantially different.

A Thousand Miles to Freedom speaks out against the North Korean regime and is interspersed with political commentary. As an abundance of writings on this topic currently exist, Eunsun Kim's observations add little to the conversation and occasionally distract from the actual story, which vividly depicts family life in the region and is unique in its detailing of existing as a refugee in China, where Eunsun's mother was essentially sold to a farmer with whom the family was sent to live. The descriptions of time spent in China, the escape to Mongolia, and subsequent move to South Korea are fascinating and will certainly interest many readers.

Under the Same Sky's subtitle may mislead readers into assuming this narrative is anti-North Korea; however, Joseph Kim primarily focuses on his family, experience on the streets surviving as a thief, and subsequent time spent in jail. The cultural insights, such as mentions of Kim's favorite foods, school, dating, and burial rites, make the book enjoyable to read. This account differentiates itself by focusing on the author's private life, not the government. VERDICT Both volumes put a human face to an often misunderstood country and will appeal to a wide range of readers. [See Prepub Alert, 1/25/15.]--Casey Watters, Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2015

When Kim was 11, with the family starving, her mother launched her and her sister on a nine-year trek from North Korea to freedom. Along the way, they endured a North Korean labor camp, Chinese human traffickers, and a walk across Mongolia's deserts on foot. Read with Joseph Kim and Stephan Talty's Under the Same Sky: From Starvation in North Korea to Salvation in America, coming from Houghton Harcourt in June.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.