A mesmerizing book that many will find hard to read.
Gi, the
main character, changes from a brutalized, terrified 10 year old to a near
catatonic teen to a woman of untapped strength in this tale of a North Korean
girl condemned and then rescued from a concentration camp. She finds a friend
in the orphanage but when it is their time to leave the orphanage and strike
out on their own, they are betrayed by Il-Sun’s lover and sold into trafficking
in South Korea. When they try to escape
they are transported to the US in a sealed container on a ship and become sex
slaves. Eventually Gi is able to escape and finds a new life because of her
ability with numbers.
North Korea and human trafficking are shown graphically, but
not exploitively. The sex (and there is indeed sex) is used to convey the
horror and terror of young girls trapped in a life they cannot escape. I read this nearly 400 page book in just two
days, compelled to keep reading and sorry when the book ended. Although horrifying, the book is also a celebration
of the resilience of the human spirit. Americans may find themselves seeing the
homeless and immigrants with a sense of unease and guilt after reading this
book.
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