The Boy Who Escaped Paradise

by Jung-Myung Lee, Chi-Young Kim (Translation)

An unidentified body is discovered in New York City, with numbers and symbols are written in blood near the corpse. Gil­mo, a North Korean national who interprets the world through numbers, formulas, and mathematical theories, is arrested on the spot. Angela, a CIA operative, is assigned to gain his trust and access his unique thought-process.


The enigmatic Gil­mo used to have a quiet life back in Pyongyang. But when his father, a preeminent doctor is discovered to be a secret Christian, he is subsequently incarcerated along with Gilmo, in a political prison overseen by a harsh, cruel warden.


There, Gilmo meets the spirited Yeong-ae, who becomes his only friend. When Yeong-­ae manages to escape, Gil­mo flees to track her down. He uses his peculiar gifts to navigate betrayal and the criminal underworld of east Asia—a world wholly alien to everything he's ever known.


In The Boy Who Escaped Paradise, celebrated author J. M. Lee delves into a hidden world filled with vivid characters trapped by ideology, greed, and despair. Gil­mo's saga forces the reader to question the line between good and evil, truth and falsehood, captivity and freedom.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Asian Literature, Contemporary, Asia, Literary Fiction, Adult

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Lee Jung-myung (이정명) has sold hundreds of thousands of copies of his books in his native Korea. One, Deep Rooted Tree, was made into a popular TV series.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

We’re introduced to our protagonist as he’s being held in New York for murder. He’s got a rap sheet that finds him wanted by Interpol for drug smuggling, money laundering, mass murder, stock manipulation and spying for his North Korean home. If that’s not enough, he’s found at the murder scene, blood on his hands, covering the room in strange symbols.

An interrogator is brought in to unravel how a North Korean ended up traversing the world to end up in New York. It’s here we find that Gilmo has Aspergers and is some sort of mathematical savant. From there author J.M Lee serves up a bit of Forrest Gump meets The Hundred-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. It’s a pulpy romp that screams to be made into a movie. An easy distracting read.

[Melek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Güzel bir hikayesi olan ama benim açımdan başarılı olmayan bir kitaptı. Kitabın en büyük sorunu Asperger Sendromu olan bir bireyin anlatıcı olduğu hikayede anlatıcı hiç de Asperger Sendromlu bir birey gibi değildi. Evet bir matematik dahisi ancak anlatımlarında duyguları o kadar başarılı anlatmış ki otizmli bir birey olduğuna inanamadım ben. Alanda çalışan birisi olarak Asperger Sendromu’nun belli özelliklerini okuyan bir yazarın yazdığı bir kitap diyebilirim bu kitap için. Bir de kitapta çok fazla mucize ve şans faktörü vardı. İnandırıcı gelmedi hikayede bazı yerler bana. O yüzden benim açımdan ortalama altı bir kitap oldu Cennetten Kaçan Çocuk.

[Digdem Absin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jung Myung Lee’nin okuduğum ikinci romanı Cennetten Kaçan Çocuk. Kurgu, hikaye ve anlatım olarak beğendiğim bir kitap oldu.

Kuzey Kore’li matematik dehası An Gilmo’nun sakin ve büyük yoksullukla geçen hayatı babasının Hristiyan olduğunun ortaya çıkması ve çalışma kampına gönderilmeleriyle daha kötü bir hal alır. Burada Gilmo’yu kanatları altına alıp sayılar dünyasına dönmesini sağlayan Gang Amca ona büyük bir sorumluluk da yükler: Kızı Yonge’yi takip etmesi ve koruması. Babası ve Gang Amca öldükten sonra kamptan ayrılan Yonge’yi takip etmek için kaçan Gilmo’dan, onların Çin, Şangay, Seul ve ABD’ye uzanan hikayelerini öğreniyoruz. Asperger Sendromu olduğu düşünülen Gilmo’nun Yonge’yi takip ederken, hayatta kalma mücadelesi ve sayılara tutunmasını konu alıyor roman. Kitap boyunca süren karamsar hava sonundaki sürpriz sonla dağılıyor.

Gelelim çeviri ve dilbilgisi konularına… İyi demek isterdim; maalesef rezalet. Usta işi bir çeviri olmuş; yine bir Doğan Kitap ve yine çeviri ve editörlük harikası cümleler (!) Sürekli tekrar eden, çeviriden kaynaklı ve editörün düzeltmeye zahmet etmediği düşük cümleler tekrar tekrar okumaya zorladı beni. Bu gözler ‘…. bu nedenden dolayıydı.’ gibi ifadeler gördü romanda- ki bu tür cümlelerle sadece anlatım bozukluğu test sorularında karşılaşmıştım geçmişte. Bu da yetmezmiş gibi ‘….. o anadili konuşucularının….’ şeklinde deli saçması kelimeler okudum. Ben bu yoruma yazdığım cümleleri tekrar okuyup hataları düzeltmeye çalışıyorum ama çeviri bir romanı yayına hazırlayan ekip zahmet edip ikinci defa okumuyor galiba; okuyorlarsa daha da acınası bir durum söz konusu.

[Hulyacln · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Vücudum zamanı içine alan küçük bir kâse. Zaman, bir ağaç yaprağı gibi içime düşüp birikiyor. İçimde çürüyen zamanın kokusunu alabiliyorum. Hafızamda biriken zaman her zaman bugündür. Çünkü geçmiş, geçip giden bugün ve gelecek, henüz gelmemiş olan bugündür.’
.
Gilmo sayıları çok seviyor. Baktığı her yerde sayıları görüp; güzelliği dahi sayılarla tanımlanıyor.
Örneğin Yonge çok güzel; çünkü Yonge’nin yüzü altın orana sahip.
Sevdiğimiz şeylerden sınanıp-yara almamız olasılığını hesaplasaydı başına gelecekleri önceden tahmin eder miydi Gilmo bilmiyoruz ancak Kuzey Kore’den yeraltı dünyasının dehlizlerine ulaşmasıyla yaşadıklarının az buz olmadığına eminiz.
.
Cennetten Kaçan Çocuk için diyebileceğim ilk şeyin çok akıcı olduğu hatta okuyamama dönemindeyseniz size ilaç gibi geleceği. Sevip sevmeme konusunda ise karışığım. Tesadüflerin-mucizelerin dünyasına yabancıyım, sanırım tam da bu yüzden kitapta geçen bazı olayları içselleştiremedim, ‘hmm evet tam da bu!’ diyemedim. Peki Jung Myung Lee ile tanıştığım için mutlu muyum ve başka bir eseri çevrilse okur muyum? Cevabım: kesinlikle evet.
.
Göksel Türközü çevirisi; Geray Gençer kapak tasarımıyla ~

[Barry Welsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen to my review on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPzzK...

Read my review on Substack here - https://open.substack.com/pub/barrywe...

[Metin Celâl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Korece’den Türkçeye usta çevirmen Göksel Türközü’nün kazandırdığı ‘Cennetten Kaçan Çocuk’un alt başlığı ‘Aptal Denilen Bir Dâhinin Hikâyesi’. Aptal denilen dâhi de katil zanlısı olarak CIA ajanlarınca sorguya alınan Gilmo. CIA ajanlarının sorguya almasının sebebi de Gilmo’nun üzerinden Çin, Makao, Güney Kore ve Japonya’ya ait dört ayrı sahte pasaport çıkması ve cinayet, kumar, uyuşturucu ticareti, kara para aklama gibi 10 ayrı suçtan Interpol tarafından aranması.
Gilmo ifade vermeyi reddediyor, ağzından tek bir sözcük bile çıkmıyor. İyi polis kötü polis oyununda iyi polisi oynayan CIA ajanı Angela, onun güvenini kazanıyor ve yavaş yavaş dilinin çözülmesini, gerçekleri anlatmasını sağlıyor. Böylece roman iki farklı zamanda gelişmeye başlıyor.
1987’ye, Kuzey Kore’ye Pyongyang’a dönüyoruz. Gilmo bir matematik dehası adayı olarak ülkenin en iyi okulunda okuyor. Matematik Olimpiyatları’na hazırlanıyor. Babası başarılı bir doktor. İyi bir hayat yaşıyorlar. Her şey babasının gizli bir Hıristiyan olduğunun öğrenilmesiyle değişiyor. Cennetteki yaşamlarını terk edip kendilerini çok ağır şartların hüküm sürdüğü, işkencenin kol gezdiği bir çalışma kampında buluyorlar.
Gilmo bu ölümcül çalışma kampında hayatta kalmayı matematik dehası sayesinde başarıyor. Orada Gilmo’nun güzelliği ve neşesiyle dikkati çeken Yonge’yle tanışması ise yaşamını değiştiriyor. Yonge çalışma kampından kaçmayı başardığında, Gilmo da onu bulmak için kaçıyor. Aşılmaz denilen Kuzey Kore sınırını aşıyor ve kendini Asya’nın suç dünyası içinde buluyor.
Kapalı bir kutu olarak tanımlayabileceğimiz, hakkında hemen hiçbir şey bilinmeyen, yaşam şartları hakkında çok az bilgi olan Kuzey Kore’yi, oradaki siyasi yapıyı, günlük yaşamı, insan ilişkilerini oldukça inandırıcı bir dille ve içeriden bir bakışla anlatmış Jung Myung Lee.
Kuzey’den Güney Kore’ye geçiş, oradan Şangay, Makao, Meksika, Arizona ve nihayet New York’a varan suçla dolu, araya aşk da karışan bir yol öyküsü bu. Jung Myung Lee uyuşturucu ticareti ya da kumar ve fuhuşla uğraşan suç örgütlerinin nasıl sınır tanımadan çalıştıklarını, nasıl iş birlikleri kurduklarını anlatıyor. Kapalı kutu gibi görünen, dünyayla hiçbir ilişkisi yokmuş gibi algılanan Kuzey Kore’nin aslında illegal yollardan düşman olduğu Batı’ya nasıl bağlandığını, nasıl ticari ilişkiler kurduğunu hikâye ediyor.
‘Cennetten Kaçan Çocuk’un diğer boyutu da alt başlığında ifade edilen ‘Aptal Denilen Bir Dâhinin Hikâyesi’. Gilmo tanımayanlar için zekâ olarak pek gelişmemiş, içine kapalı, insanlarla, hatta bu Dünya ile ilişki kuramayan asperger sendromlu bir çocuk. O sayılarla, matematik formülleriyle, sembolleriyle algılıyor her şeyi ve onlarla yorumlayıp, davranışlarını geliştiriyor. Onun dünyasına çok az kişi nüfuz edebiliyor. Ancak Yonge ya da CIA ajanı Angela gibi onun dilinden konuşabilen ya da duygusal yakınlık kurabilen kişiler dostluk geliştirebiliyor. Biz okurlar da Gilmo’nun bakış açısından görüyoruz tüm yaşananları. Matematik formülleri ile ifade edilen bu dünyanın algılanması ve görünümü doğal olarak bildiğimizden oldukça farklı. Bu sayede ‘Cennetten Kaçan Çocuk’ sadece suç ve gerilim romanı olmaktan çıkıp çok boyutlu, ilgiyle okunan bir eser halini alıyor.

[Kusaimamekirai · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could've given this 3.5 stars I would have simply because the concept is very interesting. There simply aren't many mysteries out these about teenage defectors with aspergers syndrome from North Korea who travel through Seoul, Macau, Shanghai, Mexico, and finally America while running drugs, being an accountant for the mob, being a proxy in a high stakes card game for wealthy Saudis, manipulating the stock market, and other seemingly implausible things in a short period of time.
Tangentially, this is a book about a murder that he may or may not have committed but very little time is given to that. It takes a backstage to his quite extraordinary life. Perhaps too extraordinary.
I'm willing to suspend disbelief to a certain extent, it is fiction after all, but in a novel that takes itself seriously I have an expectation that there will be certain elements of realism as well. Honestly, there is just too much stretching of credulity here. Seemingly every new situation this boy is dropped into, he rises to a high position of trust and power among men far older than himself. Should I believe for example that this teenage boy would be entrusted with millions of dollars by some wealthy Saudis to gamble in a card game for them? Particularly considering that they barely know him?
Ultimately, this story jumps from unbelievable scenario to unbelievable scenario, never really fleshing any of them out. Perhaps if the author had chosen only one or two rather than seven or eight, I could have been convinced this little boy navigated these complex situations like he did. However I was just left feeling like the author had eight different stories to tell but couldn't settle on one. There are things to like in this book but it came up a little short for me.

[John Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting riff on the Odyssey in which Odysseus and Penelope both start at Troy and journey to Ithaca on parallel paths which join and separate and then join again. The pair are two teenagers, Gil-mo and Yong-ae. Troy is a North Korean prison camp where they have both been sent off to with their fathers, who have run afoul of the regime for different reasons both involving books (Gilmo’s father for having a Bible, Yong-ae’s for fraudulent accounting). Ithaca is the West – a place that is destined to be their home even if they have yet to go there. The story has the calm, detached feel of a myth or a fable and those who are expecting a crime or spy thriller may be disappointed. I’m not sure what I expected myself, but I ended up feeling pretty satisfied with the read.

[Manon「マノン」 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book a while ago but put it down because of classes and the fact that the book wasn’t what I expected. I thought it would be a murder mystery where the main character Gil-mo would help the police solve the crime with his knowledge of math.

The book is actually about Gil-mo’s past, how he defected from North Korea, and his journey to America. Therefore the book goes back and forth between the past and the present time.

Overall, I enjoyed the book especially since the author did some research about the experiences of North Korean defectors. But all the math things, I couldn’t understand a single thing for the life of me.

[Queralt✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m always a bit skeptical when I pick up a fiction book about a North Korean, but this was quite good. No BS (I’m looking at you Adam Johnson), but actual research.

The book follows a North Korean kid with Aspergers and a fascination with maths, symmetry, and Coca-Cola. He escapes North Korea and mingles with illicit networks trying to find his friend who was a victim of human trafficking. He ends up involved in gambling in Macao and, eventually, a murder in the US.

I enjoyed it, even if it was a little cheesy (and had lots of maths 😵).

[Renklikalem · Rating 4 out of 5]

#cennettenkacancocuk’u geçtiğimiz aralık ayında canim @yasonunkitabhanesi öncülüğünde kore edebiyatı okumaları kapsamında @ahtapotokur ile okumuştuk. Yılın son günleri, doğum günleri, yılbaşı, hastalıklar derken paylaşamadığım ama mutlaka profilimde olmayı hakettiğini düşündüğüm kitaplardan. O yüzden geç de olsa birkaç kelime yazmak istedim.
Yıllar evvel çok çılgın bir Olasılıksız fırtınası kopmuştu hatırlar mısınız? 📚 İşte bana fena halde o romanı hatırlattı. Çok severek okudum dünyayı sayılarla, olasılıklarla algılayan Gilmo’nun hikayesini. Aynı zamanda bir distopya okur gibi, bir film izler gibi de hissettirdi.
Bölüm başlıklarını çok sevdim bunu ayrıca belirtmeliyim!
Uzayan, sarkan, kurgunun zayıf düştüğü yerler de oldu aslında ama hem günün sonunda beni ikna etti hem de kitabın geneline baktığımda aldığım keyfe değdi kesinlikle.
Çevirisinden de mutlaka bahsetmem gerekiyor. Daha önce okuduğum Kore Edebiyatı kitaplarında dilde, anlatımda tuhaf gelen detaylar olurdu ama burada hem yazarın hem çevirmenin hüneri sayesinde hiç o donuklukları, aksamaları hissetmedim.
Alıntıladığım kısımlar da ilginizi çektiyse mutlaka okumanızı tavsiye ederim.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book was meant for a very particular audience. Those who love numbers, puzzles, and authors who write in a stream of consciousness type style, this is the read for you.

I had read this book thinking this was going to focus more on the living conditions in North Korea, or maybe the thought process of someone living in the poverty-stricken, dictator led country, but what I got was more a collection of thoughts and scenes from a boy's both seemingly unlucky and lucky life. You get a glimpse of the rough conditions of prisoner camps, but not enough to mention it as the main plot.

I think what fell flat were all the other characters beside the protagonist. They were all over the place in terms of how well they were described or what importance they led to the story, and I couldn't really tell what anyone's true motives were? Which is fine, if it's just a couple of people, but that was essentially the whole cast who's intentions and goals were vague. The number analogies were just too much for me to enjoy or understand, but that's my own damn fault, because boy oh boy do I hate math, but I'm not docking any points there. The so-called mystery held at the beginning of the story wasn't really what I was into either; I was more focused on the main character's history rather than solving the who-dunnit case.

I really liked the main character Gilmo, and thought the twist at the end (meant to explain his behaviors) was surprisingly well done, without demeaning through the trope at all. The pacing was actually really good too, and the events that occurred were wild enough to make you have to suspend your disbelief, but not to the point where you couldn't enjoy it. The prose isn't dense or flowery, and that's something sort of fresh from translated fiction I read. Again, not a bad read by any means, just not meant for me!

[Alik · Rating 2 out of 5]

An odd book. I'd rank this somewhere between 2 and 3 stars. What you have here is a story about a North Korean savant who thinks and speaks through mathematics. He is far different from anyone else, and he knows it himself. We follow him as he grows up, his family are deemed as traitors and are sent to live in a DPRK prison camp ultimately before he escapes and defects from the country. From there things turn entirely different. It's like the Forest Gump effect, he lives through extraordinary event after event miraculously coming off unscathed each time. Until the end where he becomes the primary suspect for a murder with all evidence pointing to him.

In between all of this is a love interest whom the main character is obsessed with. And that side of the story mirrors the story of Homer's Odyssey. Where two lovers voyage off and are destined to meet and be together when they reach their Ithaca. As great and as smart as that is, it really didn't come off that way. Like much of the book, everything is just so damn complex and there's just too much of everything else other than a focus on the actual characters on a personal level.

A very odd book. There's a lot going on. The maths in it are very 'hardcore' in comparison to that seen in other thriller books. And honestly, I do not even know if I enjoyed the story? It was interesting, but not all that engrossing or had much value or meaning inside it's pages. For me the best parts of the book were at the beginning. But what substance was there then didn't really turn into anything and was largely abandoned.

[Jayon Park · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first half of the book seemed believable and interesting as the main character interpreted his surroundings as mathematical/ systematic equations. (the story made sense)

However, the second half was loosely held together by a series of highly unlikely coincidences (joining a drug smuggling business, winning jackpots at casinos, avoiding the North Korean guards while obtaining a high profile, joining an illegal scam operation in Korea, being able to travel to numerous countries without being ever caught, etc). No matter how intelligent the main character might be, it did not make sense how he was able to adjust to new environments coming from his very traumatic past.
Overall, it just seemed like the plot was stretched to somehow make a love line possible.

It angered me how the book portrayed a more glorified version of the North Korean refugees. The book propelled a stereotype that all North Korean refugees choose to join even the most sinister routes for a chance at freedom. The reality is far from the portrayals of the book as the majority of naive and desperate NK refugees fall into wrong hands and often, never find the freedom they were seeking for in the first place.

[Harold · Rating 3 out of 5]

This starts with a person with Asperger's being interrogated for murder in America, with the classic setup of a mystery. But rather than being a mystery it is the tale of the our protagonist, a young North Korean teenager who finds himself in a North Korea prison, escapes and travels and has adventures in Macau and Shanghai on his way to South Korea, following, or perhaps stalking, a childhood friend whose face has the golden ratio. It isn't clear if his fascination is mathematical or sexual, or starts with one and ends with the other. The entire story is told in an antiseptic manner and with great convenience -- being a mathematical genius he can win at leisure in the casino --and the denouement is incredibly rushed. Somehow we are in Mexico and then in America, again with the girl he is stalking. And in a second it is over. But the main character of a boy with Asperger's presents an interesting protagonist, if it is an accurate portrayal, although I wish I had more confidence in its accuracy and that the author had told a more realistic story.

[Mustafa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Boy Who Escaped Paradise, is a story of probability, luck, chance, whatever you want to call it, you just have believe in it because believing is part of "seeing". Some stories are so unbelievable; in that perhaps miracles don't exist; that good things never come true; that the dead may never be free; that there's no stars in the vast open night sky. Whether its true or not, it doesn't matter because all you have to believe that it did. There's nothing wrong with believing that miracles do exist; that good things do come true, that the dead are free; that there's in fact stars in the vast open night sky.

Moving on, the book has the elements of mystery and adventure and be advised that it does have language which is not suitable for the general audience. I was hooked up until the end since it felt rushed, which is why I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Will you enjoy it? If you don't mind the language, have an open mind; as long you don't take things personally; you will enjoy it.

[Anete Beinarovica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on the description, you might think this book is a murder mystery and/or a story about life under the North Korean regime. Spoiler alert (!!!): it’s neither. The murder the book opens with plays a surprisingly small role in the overall story, and so does North Korea.

The main protagonist, Gilmo, has Asperger’s and sees the world through numbers. Math is present every step of the way, and the book seems to suggest that being a math genius will get you through every situation in life. Maybe that’s true (I wouldn’t know, because I’m terrible at numbers), but at some point it just became unbelievable. The math was a bit too much for me in general, and I often found myself losing focus during those math-heavy passages.

Aside from the math, what annoyed me the most was the female protagonist and Gilmo’s inexplicable obsession with her. Everything he does is for her, while she never misses an opportunity to use him. I kept hoping he would eventually realize this and let her go—but that never happens. I guess it was supposed to be romantic, but to me it just seemed toxic.
On top of that, there were waaaay too many side characters who seemed to serve absolutely no purpose.

The ending was strange and felt rushed. And what was with the sudden dropping of brand names? Again, quite annoying.

Overall, it’s clear that the author did a lot of research. In some areas, I honestly wish he had done less. Too much is going on most of the time, and, for the amount of research done, a lot of it was just waaaaay too unbelievable.

***

"My feet stopped still whenever I thought of her. Everything turned to zero when I multipilied it with her."

"We were each in our space and time. If I could fold time, if I could bend space, we would meet at a point in the universe."

"Not knowing everything can be the same as not knowing anything. A little bit of knowledge can be dangerous."

"Without the passage of time, nothing would be beautiful."

[Sara Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still can’t really decide if I actually like this book. I initially picked it up because the summary grabbed my attention and the book started off strong. I’m not sure what I was expecting but I guess I was hoping for more of a “twist” at the end.

We are initially introduced to Gil-mo, a North Korean defector with Aspergers in a US holding facility being interrogated for a laundry list of crimes. As he is asked about each one he flashes back to his life and what actually happened in that moment. Because of his disorder he struggles with social situations but is a math genius and thinks in equations. This can be a little hard to follow at times if you’re not familiar with math theories and I found myself skimming the sections where he goes off on mathematical tangents. As you can probably guess, he gets taken advantage of a lot by bad actors.

I think my biggest complaint is that Gil-mo‘s main “motivation” throughout his journey is to find a girl he met in North Korean prison. He gets out of North Korea relatively early in the book so he’s just kinda walking around China and Korea aimlessly looking for clues to find her. But on many occasions she seems like she doesn’t want to be found or be with Gil-mo. It was hard for me to like this plan. I basically felt like Gil-mo deserved more in his life than this girl who didn’t seem to genuinely care about him. Especially because chapter after chapter we read of instances where Gil-mo is taken advantage of and we don’t want him to end up in another bad situation.

This book also felt a little repetitive. Gil-mo finds a clue that the girl he is looking for is in a different town, he goes to said town, ends up working for some bad man who takes advantage of Gil-mo, things go wrong, and repeat. At times I had to convince myself to keep reading it because I got bored with the same story over and over.

[Briena McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Boy Who Escaped Paradise tells the story of Ahn Gilmo, a teenage boy from North Korea who has Asperger syndrome, which makes it hard for him to connect with others but gives him a rare talent for numbers, login, and patterns. The novel begins with Gilmo being found at the scene of a murder in New York and taken to a hospital, where the FBI questions him. From there, the story jumps between the present and his past, slowly revealing how he escaped from North Korea and ended up in the United States. As Gilmo shares his memories, readers learn about the struggles he faced living under a strict regime, the people he met along the way, and how he uses his brilliant mind to survive and adapt to different situations. The book blends mystery, survival, and personal growth, all seen Through The Eyes of someone who sees the world in a completely different way.

I really enjoyed this book because it was both thought-provoking and full of suspense. Ahn Gilmo is a unique and powerful narrator-his way of seeing the world makes even ordinary things feel new and meaningful. The mix of personal struggle, action, and emotional depth kept me interested from start to finish. I think other readers will enjoy this novel because of how the story combines real world issues, like life under dictatorship and the challenges of being different, with a fast-moving plot. If you like books that make you think while also keeping you on the edge of your seat, The Boy Who Escaped Paradise is definitely worth reading.

[Anna Einstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m so conflicted about this book. It’s an engaging story of a North Korean defector and I really enjoyed it, but:

- it’s a strange way of framing it as an FBI interrogation where the accused recounts his life story as an explanation for the charges brought against him. I’m not sure it works that well, the entire time I was expecting the plot to move forward from the interrogation timeline while 99% of the book is Gilmo telling his story;

- from the description, I was expecting more of a murder investigation kind of book and the actual murder was used as a pretext to tell the memoir-style story of hardships endured in NK and difficulties faced by defectors in China, where they often get exploited or end up in sex work or the criminal world. Nothing wrong with it but I think my expectations influenced my reception of the book;

- all the numbers and equations lost me, especially in the beginning when you don’t really understand what’s happening yet;

- this is not a criticism of the book exactly but I listened to the audiobook version read by Raymond J. Lee who kept pronouncing Singapore as “Signapore” which really annoyed me and he also pronounced Korean names in a very American way. Dude, learn to pronounce things correctly when recording an audiobook!

[Martin Roth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review from Asia Thrills - https://asiathrills.com/the-boy-who-e...

“The Boy Who Escaped Paradise,” released in 2016, is the second of best-selling South Korean author Jung-Myung Lee’s novels to be published in English translation. “The Investigation” appeared a year earlier.

It tells the story of Gil-mo, a mathematics genius with Asperger syndrome, who has been raised in North Korea. Thanks to his talents, his family live in relative comfort, until his father is discovered to be a secret Christian.

They are thrown into a prison camp, where Gil-mo becomes friends with a girl named Yong-ae. When she manages to get out, he too escapes and begins a search for her.

The book jumps back and forth in time, and takes us from North Korea to China, South Korea, Europe, Mexico and the US. Along the way we get a lot of instruction in mathematics, as Gil-mo’s skill with numbers helps him finance his travels.

It is an intriguing story, with a particularly strong lead character and a crackling pace. As expected, it is expertly translated by Chi-Young Kim.

[Elyse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I clearly did not read the synopsis of this book right, because it was absolutely not what I was expecting - but in a good way! This book has a definite 'Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime' vibe which I was not expecting, but wasn't necessarily bad. It was a book that I didn't really want to put down - I always wanted to read one more chapter just to see if we'd learn anymore information to figure out the murder that opened the book. It kept interest by constantly introducing a new crime the main character was accused of every few chapters, and of course you'd want to understand how this genuine and rather innocent character could have ever found himself in such a situation. I didn't love the end completely, but in all the book clearly held my interest and I may have been hoping for more of a clearly happy ending than the book really deserved anyway!

Note: I received a free copy of this book as a Goodreads Giveaway - all opinions expressed above are my own!

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book started out by going in some unexpected/ unpredictable directions. As it went on, there were some cliched elements, and also I felt like the character was a little overly savant (like, in one moment he doesn't really understand other people's emotions, and in the next chapter he's developing a whole plan of action based on a sophisticated analysis of other people's body language). Still, I really enjoyed the action and I liked the twist at the end. I didn't really think the ending where he stays with Yeong-ae was super realistic. She doesn't seem like someone who will stay with you, Gilmo! Don't trust her!

[Raghuveer Parthasarathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A page-turner about an odd, mathematically talented, young North Korean’s adventures being imprisoned, escaping, and becoming embroiled in all sorts of schemes across four countries. It’s not very well written – things just happen one after another and the characters are flat and unrealistic, but I’ll give it one more star than it deserves because I’m fond of stories set in North Korea. I’m surprised to see several reviews here complain that there’s too much math in the book; there’s very little, and what little there is is largely meaningless, what someone who doesn’t understand math thinks that someone who does might say.

[Olwyn Ducker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this from a Goodreads giveaway .
A young boy with Autism lives his life through numbers from child to adulthood he struggles to make sense of a world that is strange to him, he has one true love a girl that was in the prison camp that he and his father were taken to when he was young.
The book starts off in North Korea and after his escape travels through many countries in search of the girl he met in the camp
Very worth reading, a lovely book
Apart from all the maths it was a lovely easy to read book,Sad most of the time as people used him.

[Kai · Rating 4 out of 5]

The protagonist is largely driven by his affection for order- especially through the lens of mathematics. Mentioned in the authors note, Gödel, Ester, Bach was a leading influence on the strutting of the novel, and the oscillations of repeated conflict can be easily understood in these highly structured forms.

I would consider the book a 3.5, but the resolution was quite satisfying to me- which sang reminiscently to some of my favorite works of Bach. While sometimes slow, the structure is beautifully done.

[Susan Ely · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book a was a delightful quick read that kept me turning pages and anxious for more. The way the story unfolds is engaging, interesting and very effective for moving the plot along multiple timelines. The characters are well developed and interesting. As a mother of a child on the spectrum, the story telling of his interactions with others and how he thinks was telling of Aspergers and endearing. Well worth the read and I will look for more by this author.

[Jennifer Sigman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderfully complicated, beautifully translated book. We spend time in North Korea, various parts of China, South Korea, Mexico, and the United States. Jim Lee turns a very critical and detailed eye to everything until you feel the starvation, the misery, and the confusion of a young man who cannot understand the worlds he gets thrust in to. By the end, you are left wondering how much was real. Highly recommended.

[gizem · Rating 3 out of 5]

kitap başlarda beni pek yakalamamıştı ve sıkıldığım yerler çok oldu, fakat 100 sayfa kadar sonra inanılmaz bir şekilde hikaye beni içine çekti. sanki bir dünya yolculuğuna çıkmış ve her yanıyla dünyayı görmüş gibi hissettim. kitap benim için o kısımlarda mükemmele yakındı. fakat sonunu pek beğenmedim, son 100 sayfası sıkıcı değildi fakat kitap için mükemmel bir son diyemem. fakat okuyana pek çok şey katabilecek bir kitap. okumaya değer.

[Deborah Charnes]

This book was outstanding for so many reasons.
I'd read another book about North Korean refugees. But in this novel, the main character is very unique. I don't think I've ever read a book before about a character such as this one.
And while I'm not into suspense books, this one is a bit of a thriller or who-dun-it, but given the character(s) and the settings, I absolutely LOVED it.