An American Journalist's Release from Captivity in North Korea . . . A Remarkable Story of Faith, Family, and Forgiveness
January 10, 2011
In this stunning first book, film editor Lee (for Current TV, the cable network cofounded by Al Gore) recounts the months she spent in a North Korean prison during the spring and summer of 2009. Lee and her coworker, Laura Ling, were arrested for entering North Korea from China while working on a documentary chronicling the dreadful privations faced by North Korean defectors once they reached China, conditions especially harsh for women, as many were sold into the sex trade or forced into marriage. Lee discusses in detail the time she and Ling spent in captivity, divulging the scare tactics employed by the guards, like all-day interrogations in an attempt to gain "suitable" confessions. Maintaining her sanity by thinking constantly of her family and praying in secret, Lee rises above illness and a looming 14-year prison sentence to paint a lucid self-portrait.
September 1, 2010
Current TV film editor Lee was captured along with colleague Laura Ling when their crewdocumenting defections from North Koreavery briefly crossed the border between China and North Korea. Lee, of South Korean descent, had been particularly affected by the stories they documented of travelers on an underground railroad from the oppressive regime, including women forced into sexual slavery. Her captors used her heritage in their psychological campaign to induce guilt and drive a wedge between her and Ling during five months of detention that culminated in confessions, a trial, and sentencing to 12 years in a labor camp. Lee recalls the harsh conditions of detention and her reliance on her Christian faith and her longing for her familyparticularly her young daughterfor survival. Following their release after diplomatic efforts led by former president Clinton, Lee continued to struggle with regrets about the forced confession and revealing sources, possibly hurting people theyd intended to help. This is a heartrending story of serious challenges to a journalists credo and a womans test of faith and endurance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)