Blaine Harden is a reporter for PBS's FRONTLINE and a contributor to the Economist, and has served as The Washington Post's bureau chief in East Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa. He is the author of Africa: Dispatches from a Fragile Continent and A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
"Harden’s book, besides being a gripping story, unsparingly told,
carries a freight of intelligence about this black hole of a
country." —Bill Keller, The New York Times
“The central character in Blaine Harden's extraordinary new book
Escape from Camp 14 reveals more in 200 pages about human darkness
in the ghastliest corner of the world's cruelest dictatorship than
a thousand textbooks ever could . . . Escape from Camp 14, 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. Like "The Diary of Anne Frank"
or Dith Pran's account of his flight from Pol Pot's genocide in
Cambodia, it's impossible to read this excruciatingly personal
account of systemic monstrosities without fearing you might just
swallow your own heart . . . Harden's wisdom as a writer shines on
every page.” —The Seattle Times"U.S. policymakers wonder what
changes may arise after the recent death of North Korean leader Kim
Jong Il, this gripping book should raise awareness of the brutality
that underscores this strange land. Without interrupting the
narrative, Harden skillfully weaves in details of North Korea's
history, politics and society, providing context for Shin's
plight.” —The Associated Press
“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 without an end in sight.” —Terry Hong, Christian
Science Monitor
“A remarkable story, [Escape from Camp 14 ] is a searing account of
one man’s incarceration and personal awakening in North Korea’s
highest-security prison.” —The Wall Street Journal
“As an action story, the tale of Shin’s breakout and flight is pure
The Great Escape, full of feats of desperate bravery and miraculous
good luck. As a human story it is gut wrenching; if what he was
made to endure, especially that he was forced to view his own
family merely as competitors for food, was written in a movie
script, you would think the writer was overreaching. But perhaps
most important is the light the book shines on an under-discussed
issue, an issue on which the West may one day be called into
account for its inactivity.” —The Daily Beast
“A riveting new biography . . . If you want a singular perspective
on what goes on inside the rogue regime, then you must read [this]
story. It’s a harrowing tale of endurance and courage, at
times grim but ultimately life-affirming.” —CNN
“[Shin’s] tale becomes even more gripping after his unprecedented
journey . . . after he realizes that he has been raised as
something less than human. He gradually, haltingly—and, so far,
with mixed success—sets out to remake himself as a moral, feeling
human being.” —Fred Hiatt, The Washington Post
“If you have a soul, you will be changed forever by Blaine Harden’s
Escape from Camp 14 . . . Harden masterfully allows us to know
Shin, not as a giant but as a man, struggling to understand what
was done to him and what he was forced to do to survive. By doing
so, Escape from Camp 14 stands as a searing indictment of a
depraved regime and a tribute to all those who cling to their
humanity in the face of evil.”—Mitchell Zuckoff, New York Times
bestselling author of Lost in Shangri-La
"This is a story unlike any other . . . More so than any other book
on North Korea, including my own, Escape from Camp 14 exposes the
cruelty that is the underpinning of Kim Jong Il’s regime. Blaine
Harden, a veteran foreign correspondent from The Washington Post,
tells this story masterfully . . . The integrity of this book,
shines through on every page.” —Barbara Demick, author of Nothing
to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
“In Escape from Camp 14, Harden chronicles Shin’s amazing journey,
from his very first memory—a public execution he witnessed as a
4-year-old—to his work with human rights advocacy groups in South
Korea and the United States . . . By retelling Shin’s
against-all-odds exodus, 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.” —Will Lizlo, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Blaine Harden of the Washington Post is an experienced reporter of
other hellholes, such as the Congo, Serbia, and Ethiopia. These, he
makes clear, are success stories compared to North Korea . . .
Harden deserves a lot more than; ‘wow’ for this terrifying, grim
and, at the very end, slightly hopeful story of a damaged man still
alive only by chance, whose life, even in freedom, has been
dreadful.” —Literary Review
“Harden tells a gripping story. Readers learn of Shin’s
gradual discovery of the world at large, nonadversarial human
relationships, literature, and hope—and the struggles ahead. A book
that all adults should read.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“[A] chilling [and] remarkable story of deliverance from a hidden
land.” —Kirkus Reviews
“With a protagonist born into a life of backbreaking labor,
cutthroat rivalries, and a nearly complete absence of human
affection, Harden’s book reads like a dystopian thriller. But this
isn’t fiction—it’s the biography of Shin Dong-hyuk.” —Publishers
Weekly
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