Blaine Harden, former national correspondent and writer for the New York Times, tells an agonizing and heartbreaking story of one man's highly conflicted life in a labor camp and of a quest to escape this place where he grew up. This man's name is Shin Dong-hyuk. Together, Blaine Harden and Shin Dong-hyuk tell us the story of this man's imprisonment and escape to South Korea and, finally, to the United States, from North Korea. This biography, set in the period 1982-2011, tells its readers what is really happening in "one of the darkest nations in the world" (back cover of the book), run under a communist state and a totalitarian dictatorship led by Kim Il-sung , Kim Jong-il and currently led by Kim-Jong un. In Escape from Camp 14, Shin shows us the adjustment of his life and how a man can truly evolve from an animal to a true human being. Shin Dong-hyuk was born in a labor camp, more specifically known as Camp 14. In this camp, Shin was considered to be living “below the law” (3) due to the crimes of his father's brother. In this field, Shin has gone through things that many people couldn't even imagine. He survived on his own. His mother beat him, his father ignored him and he didn't trust anyone. "Before he learned anything else, Shin learned to survive by snitching on them all." (3). In this field the word "family" did not exist. This all sounds horrible to many people living outside of North Korea, but it's just the beginning. His life got increasingly worse when his mother and brother decided to try to escape the camp. On April 5, 1996, Shin's older brother He Guen returned home. While He Guen was talking to Shin's mother, he overheard that "his brother was in trouble and... middle of paper... I would recommend him to anyone, even if you don't know anything about what's going on in North Korea .I love this book because I always hear about what North Korea does to prisoners in labor camps, but no one is ever really sure what happens there since it's so isolated Blaine Harden and Shin Dong-hyuk really show what it does this society hidden inside his country, which is a terror. I congratulate Shin Dong-hyuk for what he has achieved in life. The beatings of the guards, the stress of doing something wrong and the worry of not finding food these are things that many people couldn't even imagine. He truly evolved from an animal to a human being. Blaine Harden and Shin Dong-hyuk really capture the secrecy and terror that reigns in this totalitarian society and hopefully one day. will be stopped. Works Cited Escape from the camp 14