Wednesday, December 2, 2015

In Order to Live

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In Order to Live
By Yeonmi Park
Penguin Press, 2015. 273 pgs. Nonfiction

Yeonmi Park was born in North Korea where she suffered incredible hardship.  Escaping with her mother to China when she was thirteen, they discovered to their horror that North Korean women escaping into China were routinely sold into sexual slavery as brides to Chinese or as prostitutes. The alternative was being returned to North Korea where they would inevitably be sent to a prison camp or executed.  Yeonmi and her mother endured the brutality of their time in China and finally found a way to escape to South Korea.  Adjusting to modern life was difficult but Yeonmi worked hard to gain an education. She was afraid to talk about her past  but finally realized she couldn’t make a difference if she hid the truth. Now a human rights activist, Yeonmi tells her gripping but heartbreaking story so people can know about and work to stop human rights abuses in North Korea and China.  SH

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