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The Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times betselling novel of North Korea: an epic journey into the heart of the worlds most mysterious dictatorship. "Imagine Charles Dickens paying a visit to Pyongyang, and you see the canvas on which [Adam] Johnson is painting here." - The Washington Post Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother - a singer "stolen" to Pyongyang - and an influential father who runs a work camp for orphans. Superiors in the North Korean state soon recognize the boys loyalty and keen instincts. Considering himself "a humble citizen of the greatest nation in the world," Jun Do rises in the ranks. He becomes a professional kidnapper who must navigate the shifting rules, arbitrary violence, and baffling demands of his 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 didnt know what starving people looked like." Part breathless thriller, part story of innocence lost, part story of romantic love, The Orphan Masters 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. FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD * WINNER OF THE DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE Named ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR by more than a dozen publications, including The Washington Post * Entertainment Weekly * The Wall Street Journal * Los Angeles Times * San Francisco ChroniclePraise for The Orphan Masters Son"An exquisitely crafted novel that carries the reader on an adventuresome journey into the depths of totalitarian North Korea and into the most intimate spaces of the human heart." - Pulitzer Prize citation"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 Orphan Masters Son has an early lead on novel of [the year]." - 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
About the Author
ADAM JOHNSON teaches creative writing at Stanford University. He is the author of FORTUNE SMILES, winner of the 2015 National Book Award, THE ORPHAN MASTER'S SON, winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize, PARASITES LIKE US and EMPORIUM. He has received a Whiting Writer's Award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. His work has appeared in Esquire, Harper's, Playboy, GQ, The Paris Review, Granta, Tin House, The New York Times and Best American Short Stories. He lives in San Francisco.
