Young Jang-mi loses her innocence when she witnesses the murder of her mother and is forced into a North Korean prison camp. Separated from her family and consistently subjected to the tortures of the cruel tyranny where the value of human life is inconsequential, she becomes desensitized to the misery and death that permeates the confines of the prison. The baby growing inside her and a younger inmate, however, spark a hope in Jang-Mi that offers her a renewed faith in humanity. With this faith comes the stirrings for autonomy, but in a reality where that right is as scarce as the land she labors, Jang-mi is confronted with an inexorable truth - that independence has a cost. With a determination that only true suffering can bring, Jang-mi must endure the unthinkable in an attempt to overcome her captors and achieve the power innate and insistent in all of us - freedom.
This short book was recommended on a podcast I listened to. It was more violent than what I usually read, but I guess that should be expected considering it's set in North Korea. Still, I really didn't enjoy it much.