Can two children escape North Korea on their own?
North Korea, 1950. Twelve-year-old Sora Pak and her family live under an iron set of rules: No travel
without a permit. No criticism of the government. No absences from communist meetings. Repeat
slogans. Don’t trust your neighbors. Don’t speak your mind. You are being watched.
There is no hope for escape … until war breaks out between North and South Korea. Suddenly there
is chaos, and everyone is fleeing. The Paks’ plan to get to freedom is simple: they will walk hundreds of
miles from their tiny mountain village to the South Korean city of Busan.
But when a bombing changes everything, Sora must get herself and her eight-year-old brother,
Youngsoo, to South Korea alone—across rivers, over mountains, around enemy soldiers and border
guards, and even through Pyongyang itself, all while staving off frostbite and starvation. Can two
children survive three hundred miles of war zone in winter?
Haunting, timely, and beautiful, this harrowing novel—inspired by the experiences of the author’s
mother—offers readers a glimpse into a vanished time and a closed nation.
