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Cover of Stars Between the Sun and Moon by Lucia Jang

Stars Between the Sun and Moon

  • 288 pages · about 5 hours
  • First published 2014
  • 5 editions

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1 About this book

An incredible memoir of North Korea by a woman who defied the government to keep her family alive. Born in 1970s North Korea, Lucia Jang grew up in a typical household--her parents worked in the factories and the family scraped by on rationed rice and a small garden. Nightly, she bowed to her photo of Kim Il-Sung.

But it was the beginning of a chaotic period with a decade-long famine resulting in more than a million deaths. In this harsh time, Jang married an abusive man who sold their baby. She left him and went home to help her family by illegally crossing the river to China to trade goods. She was caught and imprisoned twice.

After giving birth to a second child, which the government ordered to be killed, she escaped with him, fleeing under gunfire across the Chinese border. This stunning demonstration of love and courage reflects the range of experiences many North Korean women have endured--loss of a child, starvation, imprisonment, and trafficking.

Good for readers who want: history and a true life story.

  • Political prisoners
  • Survival
  • History
  • Biography
  • Korea, social conditions
  • Korea, biography
  • Women, biography
  • Family life

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