Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Aug. 7, 2015, Book: 'The Orphan Master's Son: A Novel' by Adam Johnson

Tripp is hosting in August, and he has selected "The Orphan Master's Son: A Novel" by Adam Johnson. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this book is a bit longer given we have a break in June and July, so don't delay!

We're heading to Asia, specifically to the Orwellian, modern-day North Korea, for this our next literary journey. It's a place of mystery for many of us in the U.S., and it will surely be an adventure reading this book.

Here's a synopsis from Amazon.com:

Jun Do is The Orphan Master’s Son, a North Korean citizen with a rough past who is working as a government-sanctioned kidnapper when we first meet him. He is hardly a sympathetic character, but sympathy is not author Johnson’s aim. In a totalitarian nation of random violence and bewildering caprice—a poor, gray place that nonetheless refers to itself as “the most glorious nation on earth”—an unnatural tension exists between a citizen’s national identity and his private life. Through Jun Do’s story we realize that beneath the weight of oppression and lies beats a heart not much different from our own—one that thirsts for love, acceptance, and hope—and that realization is at the heart of this shockingly believable, immersive, and thrilling novel. -- Chris Schluep