At the B&N Reads blog Kat Rosenfield tagged
six incredible memoirs by defectors from closed societies, including:
The Girl with Seven Names, by Hyeonseo Lee
Since the end of the Korean War, North Korea has been a country shrouded in secrecy, and best-known by the average American for being the butt of various jokes by irreverent comedians and filmmakers. But for people like Hyeonseo Lee, who grew up with famine, fear, and public executions of anyone who dared criticize her country’s dictatorial leadership, life in North Korea is anything but funny. In The Girl with Seven Names, Lee tells stories of her life under the Kim Jong-Il regime and her harrowing escape through China, an experience she relived vicariously when she conspired to help get her mother and brother out of North Korea years later. Lee was initially made famous by a TED talk in which she described her struggle to defect; now, she works to help deprogram other escapees from North Korean oppression.
Read about
another entry on the list.
--Marshal Zeringue
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