by Yeonmi Park
First published 2015
Yeonmi Park opens her story with the moment she and her mother crossed into China in 2007, fleeing the oppression of North Korea when she was just thirteen years old. What followed was not freedom but a different kind of hell. Chinese brokers sold Park and her mother into forced marriages, trapping them in slavery. For two years, Park endured these conditions before finally reaching South Korea in 2009. Once there, she tried to blend into society by hiding the most painful parts of her experience. But Park came to understand that true freedom required facing the full truth of what had happened to her. Her decision to speak publicly about her ordeal served two purposes: inspiring other survivors and searching for her sister, who had escaped North Korea earlier but disappeared somewhere in China. Park transforms her shame into a tool for advocacy, showing how survival can become a source of strength for others.
Genres: autobiography, biography-memoir, activism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: advocacy, overcoming-adversity, survival
Setting: China, North Korea, South Korea
Period: 2007, 2009
273 pages · Paperback · Fig Tree
Content warnings: abuse, slavery, trafficking