-
Dear Leader
- Poet, Spy, Escapee - A Look inside North Korea
- Narrated by: Daniel York
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Dear Leader
Buy for $20.24
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Aquariums of Pyongyang
- By: Chol-hwan Kang, Pierre Rigoulot
- Narrated by: Stephen Park
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 284
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 246
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 247
Amid escalating nuclear tensions, Kim Jong-un and North Korea's other leaders have kept a tight grasp on their one-party state, quashing any nascent opposition movements and sending all suspected dissidents to its brutal concentration camps for "re-education". Kang Chol-Hwan is the first survivor of one of these camps to escape and tell his story to the world, documenting the extreme conditions in these gulags and providing a personal insight into life in North Korea.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Riveting!!
- By Iread on 11-12-20
By: Chol-hwan Kang, and others
-
Nothing to Envy
- Ordinary Lives in North Korea
- By: Barbara Demick
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,086
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,189
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,185
Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years - a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung and the unchallenged rise to power of his son, Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Taking us into a landscape never before seen, Demick brings to life what it means to be an average Korean citizen, living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The man who wants to be GOD
- By Gohar on 05-08-10
By: Barbara Demick
-
Stars Between the Sun and Moon
- One Woman's Life in North Korea and Escape to Freedom
- By: Lucia Jang, Susan McClelland
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 209
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 194
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 194
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 rations. Nightly she bowed to her photo of Kim Il-Sung. It was the beginning of a chaotic period with a decade-long famine. 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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fantastic story. Well read.
- By Jfm on 02-20-16
By: Lucia Jang, and others
-
The Girl with Seven Names
- A North Korean Defector’s Story
- By: Hyeonseo Lee, David John
- Narrated by: Josie Dunn
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,468
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,176
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 2,161
As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told, 'the best on the planet'?
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Did not like narrator
- By Linda H. Andreae on 10-09-19
By: Hyeonseo Lee, and others
-
A River in Darkness
- One Man's Escape from North Korea
- By: Masaji Ishikawa, Risa Kobayashi - translator, Martin Brown - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,921
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,371
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,361
Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Awful! And I don't mean the book . . .
- By DJW on 01-03-18
By: Masaji Ishikawa, and others
-
A Thousand Miles to Freedom
- My Escape from North Korea
- By: Sebastien Falletti, Eunsun Kim
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,698
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,435
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,434
Eunsun Kim was born in North Korea, one of the most secretive and oppressive countries in the modern world. As a child, Eunsun loved her country...despite her school field trips to public executions, daily self-criticism sessions, and the increasing gnaw of hunger as the countrywide famine escalated. By the time she was 11 years old, Eunsun's father and grandparents had died of starvation, and Eunsun too was in danger of starving. Finally her mother decided to escape North Korea with Eunsun and her sister.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Not Much New Here, but Courage and Hope to Spare
- By Gillian on 03-25-16
By: Sebastien Falletti, and others
-
The Aquariums of Pyongyang
- By: Chol-hwan Kang, Pierre Rigoulot
- Narrated by: Stephen Park
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 284
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 246
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 247
Amid escalating nuclear tensions, Kim Jong-un and North Korea's other leaders have kept a tight grasp on their one-party state, quashing any nascent opposition movements and sending all suspected dissidents to its brutal concentration camps for "re-education". Kang Chol-Hwan is the first survivor of one of these camps to escape and tell his story to the world, documenting the extreme conditions in these gulags and providing a personal insight into life in North Korea.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Riveting!!
- By Iread on 11-12-20
By: Chol-hwan Kang, and others
-
Nothing to Envy
- Ordinary Lives in North Korea
- By: Barbara Demick
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,086
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,189
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,185
Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years - a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung and the unchallenged rise to power of his son, Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Taking us into a landscape never before seen, Demick brings to life what it means to be an average Korean citizen, living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The man who wants to be GOD
- By Gohar on 05-08-10
By: Barbara Demick
-
Stars Between the Sun and Moon
- One Woman's Life in North Korea and Escape to Freedom
- By: Lucia Jang, Susan McClelland
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 209
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 194
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 194
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 rations. Nightly she bowed to her photo of Kim Il-Sung. It was the beginning of a chaotic period with a decade-long famine. 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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fantastic story. Well read.
- By Jfm on 02-20-16
By: Lucia Jang, and others
-
The Girl with Seven Names
- A North Korean Defector’s Story
- By: Hyeonseo Lee, David John
- Narrated by: Josie Dunn
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,468
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,176
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 2,161
As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told, 'the best on the planet'?
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Did not like narrator
- By Linda H. Andreae on 10-09-19
By: Hyeonseo Lee, and others
-
A River in Darkness
- One Man's Escape from North Korea
- By: Masaji Ishikawa, Risa Kobayashi - translator, Martin Brown - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,921
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,371
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,361
Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Awful! And I don't mean the book . . .
- By DJW on 01-03-18
By: Masaji Ishikawa, and others
-
A Thousand Miles to Freedom
- My Escape from North Korea
- By: Sebastien Falletti, Eunsun Kim
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,698
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,435
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,434
Eunsun Kim was born in North Korea, one of the most secretive and oppressive countries in the modern world. As a child, Eunsun loved her country...despite her school field trips to public executions, daily self-criticism sessions, and the increasing gnaw of hunger as the countrywide famine escalated. By the time she was 11 years old, Eunsun's father and grandparents had died of starvation, and Eunsun too was in danger of starving. Finally her mother decided to escape North Korea with Eunsun and her sister.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Not Much New Here, but Courage and Hope to Spare
- By Gillian on 03-25-16
By: Sebastien Falletti, and others
-
In Order to Live
- A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom
- By: Yeonmi Park
- Narrated by: Eji Kim
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 5,861
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,164
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 5,159
In In Order to Live, Yeonmi Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories. She tells with bravery and dignity for the first time the story of how she and her mother were betrayed and sold into sexual slavery in China and forced to suffer terrible psychological and physical hardship before they finally made their way to Seoul, South Korea - and to freedom.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Wow. What a story!
- By Jfm on 02-01-16
By: Yeonmi Park
-
North Korea Undercover
- Inside the World's Most Secret State
- By: John Sweeney
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 646
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 582
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 582
North Korea is like no other tyranny on Earth. Its citizens are told their home is the greatest nation in the world, and Big Brother is always watching. It is Orwell's 1984 made reality. Huge factories with no staff or electricity, hospitals with no patients, uniformed child soldiers, and the world-famous and eerily empty DMZ - the Demilitarized Zone, where North Korea ends and South Korea begins - are all framed by a relentless flow of regime propaganda from omnipresent loudspeakers. Free speech is an illusion: one word out of line, and the gulag awaits.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Highly listenable, humorous and enlightening
- By Kevin Stokes on 09-09-15
By: John Sweeney
-
The Hard Road Out
- One Woman’s Escape from North Korea
- By: Jihyun Park, Seh-Lynn Chai, Sarah Baldwin - translator
- Narrated by: Rosa Escoda
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
North Korea is an open-air prison from which there is no escape. Only a handful of men and women have succeeded. Jihyun Park is one of these rare survivors. Twice she left the land of the ‘socialist miracle’ to flee famine and dictatorship. By the age of 29, she had already witnessed a lifetime of suffering. Family members had died of starvation; her brother was beaten nearly to death by soldiers. Even smiling and laughing was discouraged.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Harrowing
- By Elijah Roberts on 11-26-23
By: Jihyun Park, and others
-
Without You, There Is No Us
- My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite
- By: Suki Kim
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 931
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 813
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 813
Every day, three times a day, the students march in two straight lines, singing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: Without you, there is no motherland. Without you, there is no us. It is a chilling scene, but gradually Suki Kim, too, learns the tune and, without noticing, begins to hum it. It is 2011, and all universities in North Korea have been shut down for an entire year, the students sent to construction fields - except for the 270 students at the all-male Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST).
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The King and I meets Mary Poppins
- By Michael on 02-22-15
By: Suki Kim
-
Dear Reader
- The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il
- By: Michael Malice
- Narrated by: Marcus Freeman
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,374
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,215
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,212
No country is as misunderstood as North Korea, and no modern tyrant has remained more mysterious than the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. Now, celebrity ghostwriter Michael Malice pulls back the curtain to expose the life story of the "Incarnation of Love and Morality". Taken directly from books spirited out of Pyongyang, Dear Reader is a carefully reconstructed first-person account of the man behind the mythology.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book
- By Rodney on 05-24-17
By: Michael Malice
-
The Auschwitz Escape
- By: Joel C. Rosenberg
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6,000
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 5,467
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,467
A terrible darkness has fallen upon Jacob Weisz’s beloved Germany. The Nazi regime, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, has surged to power and now hold Germany by the throat. All non-Aryans - especially Jews like Jacob and his family - are treated like dogs. When tragedy strikes during one terrible night of violence, Jacob flees and joins rebel forces working to undermine the regime. But after a raid goes horribly wrong, Jacob finds himself in a living nightmare - trapped in a crowded, stinking car on the train to the Auschwitz death camp.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing, horrifying, and heartwarming!
- By DebaDeb on 04-01-14
-
The Real North Korea
- Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia
- By: Andrei Lankov
- Narrated by: Steven Roy Grimsley
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 596
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 522
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 521
Andrei Lankov has gone where few outsiders have ever been. A native of the former Soviet Union, he lived as an exchange student in North Korea in the 1980s. He has studied it for his entire career, using his fluency in Korean and personal contacts to build a rich, nuanced understanding. In The Real North Korea, Lankov substitutes cold, clear analysis for the overheated rhetoric surrounding this opaque police state.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Broad and nuanced account of North Korea
- By Neuron on 07-29-15
By: Andrei Lankov
-
Red Notice
- A True Story of High Finance, Murder and One Man's Fight for Justice
- By: Bill Browder
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 15,018
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 13,567
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 13,554
Red Notice is a searing expose of the wholesale whitewash by Russian authorities of Magnitsky's imprisonment and murder, slicing deep into the shadowy heart of the Kremlin to uncover its sordid truths.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
This is an absolute "YES" as your next read/listen
- By William on 02-07-15
By: Bill Browder
-
Twelve Years a Slave
- By: Solomon Northup
- Narrated by: Louis Gossett Jr.
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,936
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,565
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,561
In this riveting landmark autobiography, which reads like a novel, Academy Award and Emmy winner Louis Gossett, Jr., masterfully transports us to 1840s New York; Washington, D.C.; and Louisiana to experience the kidnapping and 12 years of bondage of Solomon Northup, a free man of color. Twelve Years a Slave, published in 1853, was an immediate bombshell in the national debate over slavery leading up to the Civil War.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I've waited for this a long time
- By Book Reader on 04-04-13
By: Solomon Northup
-
Wild Swans
- Three Daughters of China
- By: Jung Chang
- Narrated by: Joy Osmanski
- Length: 22 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,952
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,717
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,721
Few books have had such an impact as Wild Swans: a popular best seller which has sold more than 13 million copies and a critically acclaimed history of China; a tragic tale of nightmarish cruelty and an uplifting story of bravery and survival.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Accurate, moving and chilling
- By David on 12-15-12
By: Jung Chang
-
The Orphan Master's Son
- A Novel
- By: Adam Johnson
- Narrated by: Tim Kang, Josiah D. Lee, James Kyson Lee, and others
- Length: 19 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,120
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,546
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,547
Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother - a singer “stolen” to Pyongyang - and an influential father who runs Long Tomorrows, a work camp for orphans. There the boy is given his first taste of power, picking which orphans eat first and which will be lent out for manual labor. Recognized for his loyalty and keen instincts, Jun Do comes to the attention of superiors in the state, rises in the ranks, and starts on a road from which there will be no return.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The most compelling listen I've ever owned
- By Lisa on 01-27-12
By: Adam Johnson
-
Animal Farm
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41,384
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 35,505
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 35,437
George Orwell's classic satire of the Russian Revolution is an intimate part of our contemporary culture, quoted so often that we tend to forget who wrote the original words! This must-read is also a must-listen!
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
If you hate spoilers, save the intro for last.
- By Dusty on 02-18-11
By: George Orwell
Publisher's summary
In this rare insider's view into contemporary North Korea, a high-ranking counterintelligence agent describes his life as a former poet laureate to Kim Jong-il and his breathtaking escape to freedom.
"The General will now enter the room."
Everyone turns to stone. Not moving my head, I direct my eyes to a point halfway up the archway where Kim Jong-il’s face will soon appear.
As North Korea's State Poet Laureate, Jang Jin-sung led a charmed life. With food provisions (even as the country suffered through its great famine), a travel pass, access to strictly censored information, and audiences with Kim Jong-il himself, his life in Pyongyang seemed safe and secure. But this privileged existence was about to be shattered. When a strictly forbidden magazine he lent to a friend goes missing, Jang Jin-sung must flee for his life.
Never before has a member of the elite described the inner workings of this totalitarian state and its propaganda machine. An astonishing exposé told through the heart-stopping story of Jang Jin-sung's escape to South Korea, Dear Leader is a rare and unprecedented insight into the world’s most secretive and repressive regime.
More from the same
Author
Narrator
Related to this topic
-
The Return
- Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between
- By: Hisham Matar
- Narrated by: Hisham Matar
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 983
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 875
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 876
When Hisham Matar was a 19-year-old university student in England, his father was kidnapped. One of the Qaddafi regime's most prominent opponents in exile, he was held in a secret prison in Libya. Hisham would never see him again. But he never gave up hope that his father might still be alive. "Hope," as he writes, "is cunning and persistent." Twenty-two years later, after the fall of Qaddafi, the prison cells were empty, and there was no sign of Jaballa Matar. Hisham returned with his mother and wife to the homeland he never thought he'd go back to again.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Touching memoir. Consider hard copy
- By Joschka Philipps on 02-22-18
By: Hisham Matar
-
Story of a Secret State
- Penguin Modern Classics
- By: Jan Karski
- Narrated by: Janusz Guttner
- Length: 18 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 83
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 81
I do not pretend to have given an exhaustive picture of the Polish Underground, its organisation and its activities. Because of our methods, I believe that there is no one today who could give an all-embracing recital...This book is a purely personal story, my story. Jan Karski's Second World War memoir is a heroic act of witness: the courageous testimony of a man who risked everything for his country. First published in 1944, the book became an instant bestseller in the US while the war still raged in Europe.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Outstanding
- By David on 10-20-11
By: Jan Karski
-
Eichmann in My Hands
- A First-Person Account by the Israeli Agent Who Captured Hitler's Chief Executioner
- By: Peter Z. Malkin, Harry Stein
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 73
In 1960 Argentina, a covert team of Israeli agents hunted down the most elusive war criminal alive: Adolf Eichmann, chief architect of the Holocaust. The young spy who tackled Eichmann on a Buenos Aires street - and fought every compulsion to strangle the Obersturmführer then and there - was Peter Z. Malkin. For decades Malkin's identity as Eichmann's captor was kept secret. Here he reveals the entire breathtaking story - from the genesis of the top-secret surveillance operation to the dramatic public capture and smuggling of Eichmann to Israel to stand trial.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent the first person account
- By Barrett Francescatti on 02-09-22
By: Peter Z. Malkin, and others
-
The Patriots
- A Novel
- By: Sana Krasikov
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren, George Guidall
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 87
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 78
Florence Fein grows up in Brooklyn in the 1930s, in a family that is gaining a foothold in the middle class. At City College she becomes engaged politically with the left-leaning student groups, and eventually, in the midst of the Depression, she takes a job with a trade organization that has a position for her in Moscow. There, she falls in love with another expatriate American and has a son. Soon after, Florence is sent to a work camp and her son to an orphanage.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Point of View of characters, past and present collide
- By Angela Adams on 01-29-19
By: Sana Krasikov
-
The Lightless Sky
- A Twelve-Year-Old Refugee's Harrowing Escape from Afghanistan and His Extraordinary Journey Across Half the World
- By: Gulwali Passarlay
- Narrated by: Assaf Cohen, Susan Duerden
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 43
In 2006, after his father was killed, Gulwali Passarlay was caught between the Taliban, who wanted to recruit him, and the Americans, who wanted to use him. To protect her son, Gulwali's mother sent him away. The search for safety would lead the 12-year-old across eight countries, from the mountains of Eastern Afghanistan through Iran and Europe to Britain. Over the course of 12 harrowing months, Gulwali endured imprisonment, hunger, cruelty, brutality, loneliness, and terror - and nearly drowned crossing the Mediterranean Sea.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A Face for Refugees
- By Daryl on 12-10-16
-
Behind Enemy Lines
- The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany
- By: Marthe Cohn, Wendy Holden
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 88
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 89
Marthe Cohn was a young Jewish woman living just across the German border in France when Hitler rose to power. Her family sheltered Jews fleeing the Nazis, including Jewish children sent away by their terrified parents. But soon her homeland was also under Nazi rule. As the Nazi occupation escalated, Marthe's sister was arrested and sent to Auschwitz and the rest of her family was forced to flee to the south of France. Always a fighter, Marthe joined the French Army and became a member of the intelligence service of the French First Army.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing story of a fighter and survivor
- By Magalie Busch on 05-06-19
By: Marthe Cohn, and others
-
The Return
- Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between
- By: Hisham Matar
- Narrated by: Hisham Matar
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 983
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 875
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 876
When Hisham Matar was a 19-year-old university student in England, his father was kidnapped. One of the Qaddafi regime's most prominent opponents in exile, he was held in a secret prison in Libya. Hisham would never see him again. But he never gave up hope that his father might still be alive. "Hope," as he writes, "is cunning and persistent." Twenty-two years later, after the fall of Qaddafi, the prison cells were empty, and there was no sign of Jaballa Matar. Hisham returned with his mother and wife to the homeland he never thought he'd go back to again.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Touching memoir. Consider hard copy
- By Joschka Philipps on 02-22-18
By: Hisham Matar
-
Story of a Secret State
- Penguin Modern Classics
- By: Jan Karski
- Narrated by: Janusz Guttner
- Length: 18 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 83
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 81
I do not pretend to have given an exhaustive picture of the Polish Underground, its organisation and its activities. Because of our methods, I believe that there is no one today who could give an all-embracing recital...This book is a purely personal story, my story. Jan Karski's Second World War memoir is a heroic act of witness: the courageous testimony of a man who risked everything for his country. First published in 1944, the book became an instant bestseller in the US while the war still raged in Europe.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Outstanding
- By David on 10-20-11
By: Jan Karski
-
Eichmann in My Hands
- A First-Person Account by the Israeli Agent Who Captured Hitler's Chief Executioner
- By: Peter Z. Malkin, Harry Stein
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 73
In 1960 Argentina, a covert team of Israeli agents hunted down the most elusive war criminal alive: Adolf Eichmann, chief architect of the Holocaust. The young spy who tackled Eichmann on a Buenos Aires street - and fought every compulsion to strangle the Obersturmführer then and there - was Peter Z. Malkin. For decades Malkin's identity as Eichmann's captor was kept secret. Here he reveals the entire breathtaking story - from the genesis of the top-secret surveillance operation to the dramatic public capture and smuggling of Eichmann to Israel to stand trial.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent the first person account
- By Barrett Francescatti on 02-09-22
By: Peter Z. Malkin, and others
-
The Patriots
- A Novel
- By: Sana Krasikov
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren, George Guidall
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 87
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 78
Florence Fein grows up in Brooklyn in the 1930s, in a family that is gaining a foothold in the middle class. At City College she becomes engaged politically with the left-leaning student groups, and eventually, in the midst of the Depression, she takes a job with a trade organization that has a position for her in Moscow. There, she falls in love with another expatriate American and has a son. Soon after, Florence is sent to a work camp and her son to an orphanage.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Point of View of characters, past and present collide
- By Angela Adams on 01-29-19
By: Sana Krasikov
-
The Lightless Sky
- A Twelve-Year-Old Refugee's Harrowing Escape from Afghanistan and His Extraordinary Journey Across Half the World
- By: Gulwali Passarlay
- Narrated by: Assaf Cohen, Susan Duerden
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 43
In 2006, after his father was killed, Gulwali Passarlay was caught between the Taliban, who wanted to recruit him, and the Americans, who wanted to use him. To protect her son, Gulwali's mother sent him away. The search for safety would lead the 12-year-old across eight countries, from the mountains of Eastern Afghanistan through Iran and Europe to Britain. Over the course of 12 harrowing months, Gulwali endured imprisonment, hunger, cruelty, brutality, loneliness, and terror - and nearly drowned crossing the Mediterranean Sea.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A Face for Refugees
- By Daryl on 12-10-16
-
Behind Enemy Lines
- The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany
- By: Marthe Cohn, Wendy Holden
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 88
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 89
Marthe Cohn was a young Jewish woman living just across the German border in France when Hitler rose to power. Her family sheltered Jews fleeing the Nazis, including Jewish children sent away by their terrified parents. But soon her homeland was also under Nazi rule. As the Nazi occupation escalated, Marthe's sister was arrested and sent to Auschwitz and the rest of her family was forced to flee to the south of France. Always a fighter, Marthe joined the French Army and became a member of the intelligence service of the French First Army.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing story of a fighter and survivor
- By Magalie Busch on 05-06-19
By: Marthe Cohn, and others
-
A Time to Betray
- The Astonishing Double Life of a CIA Agent inside the Revolutionary Guards of Iran
- By: Reza Kahlili
- Narrated by: Richard Allen
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 468
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 374
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 374
A true story as exhilarating as a great spy thriller, as turbulent as today's headlines from the Middle East, A Time to Betray reveals what no other previous CIA operative's memoir possibly could: the inner workings of the notorious Revolutionary Guards of Iran, as witnessed by an Iranian man inside their ranks who spied for the American government.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Great book, Farsi speakers will hate narrator
- By Johnny on 10-27-13
By: Reza Kahlili
-
Dancing with the Enemy
- My Family's Holocaust Secret
- By: Paul Glaser
- Narrated by: James Anderson Foster, Christa Lewis
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
The gripping story of the author's aunt, a Jewish dance instructor who was betrayed to the Nazis by the two men she loved, yet managed to survive WWII by teaching dance lessons to the SS at Auschwitz. Her epic life becomes a window into the author's own past and the key to discovering his Jewish roots.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing Unique
- By Nordic Artisan on 05-11-19
By: Paul Glaser
-
The Fox Hunt
- A Refugee's Memoir of Coming to America
- By: Mohammed Al Samawi
- Narrated by: Assaf Cohen
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 154
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 139
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 138
Born in the Old City of Sana’a, Yemen, to a pair of middle-class doctors, Mohammed Al Samawi was a devout Muslim raised to think of Christians and Jews as his enemy. But when Mohammed was 23, he secretly received a copy of the Bible, and what he read cast doubt on everything he’d previously believed. After connecting with Jews and Christians on social media, and at various international interfaith conferences, Mohammed became an activist, making it his mission to promote dialogue and cooperation in Yemen. Then came the death threats....
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Engaging and informative memoir
- By Mark on 08-02-18
-
The Pendulum
- A Granddaughter's Search for Her Family's Forbidden Nazi Past
- By: Julie Lindahl
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 253
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 225
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 225
This powerful memoir traces Brazilian-born American Julie Lindahl's journey to uncover her grandparents' role in the Third Reich, as she is driven to understand how and why they became members of Hitler's elite, the SS. Out of the unbearable heart of the story - the unclaimed guilt that devours a family through the generations - emerges an unflinching will to learn the truth.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Exceptional
- By Jean on 01-14-19
By: Julie Lindahl
-
After the Roundup
- Escape and Survival in Hitler’s France
- By: Joseph Weismann
- Narrated by: J. Clark Allison
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 36
On the nights of July 16 and 17, 1942, French police rounded up 11-year-old Joseph Weismann, his family, and 13,000 other Jews. After being held for five days in appalling conditions in the Vélodrome d'Hiver stadium, Joseph and his family were transported by cattle car to the Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp and brutally separated. A thousand children were left behind to wait for a later train. The French guards told the children that they would soon be reunited with their parents, but Joseph and his new friend, Joe Kogan, chose to risk everything in a daring escape attempt.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A “must-listen” book
- By Jonathan R Scupin on 09-25-18
By: Joseph Weismann
-
In the First Circle
- By: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Harry T. Willets - translator
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 31 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 555
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 484
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 482
Moscow, Christmas Eve, 1949. The Soviet secret police intercept a call made to the American embassy by a Russian diplomat who promises to deliver secrets about the nascent Soviet Atomic Bomb program. On that same day, a brilliant mathematician is locked away inside a Moscow prison that houses the country's brightest minds. He and his fellow prisoners are charged with using their abilities to sleuth out the caller's identity, and they must choose whether to aid Joseph Stalin's repressive state - or refuse and accept transfer to the Siberian Gulag camps, and almost certain death.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
One of the five finest novels written in the 20th Century
- By Ellis D Vener on 04-08-19
By: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and others
-
Adolfo Kaminsky
- A Forger's Life
- By: Sarah Kaminsky, Mike Mitchell
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 82
At the age of 17, Adolfo Kaminsky had narrowly escaped deportation to Auschwitz and was living in Nazi-occupied Paris, using forged documents to hide in plain sight. Due to his expert knowledge of dyes and his ability to masterfully reproduce official documents with an artistic eye, he was recruited to join the Jewish underground. He soon became the primary forger for the Resistance in Paris, working tirelessly with his network to create papers that would save an estimated 14,000 men, women, and children from certain death.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Incredible!
- By Mareo McCracken on 04-28-17
By: Sarah Kaminsky, and others
-
The Kindly Ones
- By: Jonathan Littell
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 39 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 294
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 220
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 219
The chilling fictional memoir of Dr. Maximilien Aue, a former Nazi officer who has reinvented himself, many years after the war, as a middle-class family man and factory owner in France. Max is an intellectual steeped in philosophy, literature, and classical music. He is also a cold-blooded assassin and the consummate bureaucrat. Through the eyes of this cultivated yet monstrous man, we experience in disturbingly precise detail the horrors of the Second World War and the Nazi genocide of the Jews.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Office politics in hell
- By Maine Colonial 🌲 on 04-02-13
By: Jonathan Littell
-
The Hundred-Year Walk
- An Armenian Odyssey
- By: Dawn Anahid MacKeen
- Narrated by: Neil Shah, Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 101
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 94
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 95
In the heart of the Ottoman Empire as World War I rages, Stepan Miskjian's world becomes undone. He is separated from his family as they are swept up in the government's mass deportation of Armenians into internment camps. Gradually realizing the unthinkable - that they are all being driven to their deaths - he fights, through starvation and thirst, not to lose hope.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Everything a memoir should be. You will enjoy it!
- By Jakk on 02-19-18
-
Country of Ash
- A Jewish Doctor in Poland, 1939-1945
- By: Edward Reicher, Magda Bogin - translator
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren, Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 87
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
Country of Ash is the starkly compelling, original chronicle of a Jewish doctor who miraculously survived near-certain death, first inside the Lodz and Warsaw ghettoes, where he was forced to treat the Gestapo, then on the Aryan side of Warsaw, where he hid under numerous disguises. He clandestinely recorded the terrible events he witnessed, but his manuscript disappeared during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. After the war, reunited with his wife and young daughter, he rewrote his story.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent
- By valia on 07-12-15
By: Edward Reicher, and others
-
The Darling
- By: Russell Banks
- Narrated by: Mary Beth Hurt
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 378
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 128
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 133
The Darling is Hannah Musgrave's story, told emotionally and convincingly years later by Hannah herself. A political radical and member of the Weather Underground, Hannah has fled America to West Africa, where she and her Liberian husband become friends and colleagues of Charles Taylor, the notorious warlord and now ex-president of Liberia. When Taylor leaves for the United States in an effort to escape embezzlement charges, he's immediately placed in prison.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Complex and compelling
- By Ellen H. Anderson on 02-05-05
By: Russell Banks
-
Mosaic
- By: Diane Armstrong
- Narrated by: Deidre Rubenstein
- Length: 19 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 209
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 168
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 172
>i>Mosaic is compelling storytelling at its best - from the fascinating details of Polish-Jewish culture and the rivalries and dramas of family life, to its moving account of lives torn apart by war and persecution, this an extraordinary true story of a family, and of one woman's journey to reclaim her heritage.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Absolutely excellent!
- By Roberta on 09-22-11
By: Diane Armstrong
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
North Korea Undercover
- Inside the World's Most Secret State
- By: John Sweeney
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 646
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 582
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 582
North Korea is like no other tyranny on Earth. Its citizens are told their home is the greatest nation in the world, and Big Brother is always watching. It is Orwell's 1984 made reality. Huge factories with no staff or electricity, hospitals with no patients, uniformed child soldiers, and the world-famous and eerily empty DMZ - the Demilitarized Zone, where North Korea ends and South Korea begins - are all framed by a relentless flow of regime propaganda from omnipresent loudspeakers. Free speech is an illusion: one word out of line, and the gulag awaits.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Highly listenable, humorous and enlightening
- By Kevin Stokes on 09-09-15
By: John Sweeney
-
Escape from Camp 14
- One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
- By: Blaine Harden
- Narrated by: Blaine Harden
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have escaped. But Shin Donghyuk did. In Escape from Camp 14, acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk and through the lens of Shin's life unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Powerful
- By Rachel Green on 06-26-24
By: Blaine Harden
-
North Korea Confidential
- Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors
- By: Daniel Tudor, James Pearson
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 103
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 85
North Korea is one of the most troubled societies on earth. The country's 24 million people live under a violent dictatorship led by a single family, which relentlessly pursues the development of nuclear arms, which periodically incites risky military clashes with the larger, richer, liberal South, and which forces each and every person to play a role in the "theater state" even as it pays little more than lip service to the wellbeing of the overwhelming majority.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Interesting portrait of North Korea marred by awful pronunciation
- By Amazon Customer on 08-03-21
By: Daniel Tudor, and others
-
The Aquariums of Pyongyang
- By: Chol-hwan Kang, Pierre Rigoulot
- Narrated by: Stephen Park
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 284
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 246
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 247
Amid escalating nuclear tensions, Kim Jong-un and North Korea's other leaders have kept a tight grasp on their one-party state, quashing any nascent opposition movements and sending all suspected dissidents to its brutal concentration camps for "re-education". Kang Chol-Hwan is the first survivor of one of these camps to escape and tell his story to the world, documenting the extreme conditions in these gulags and providing a personal insight into life in North Korea.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Riveting!!
- By Iread on 11-12-20
By: Chol-hwan Kang, and others
-
The Girl with Seven Names
- A North Korean Defector’s Story
- By: Hyeonseo Lee, David John
- Narrated by: Josie Dunn
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,468
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,176
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 2,161
As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told, 'the best on the planet'?
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Did not like narrator
- By Linda H. Andreae on 10-09-19
By: Hyeonseo Lee, and others
-
A River in Darkness
- One Man's Escape from North Korea
- By: Masaji Ishikawa, Risa Kobayashi - translator, Martin Brown - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,921
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,371
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,361
Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Awful! And I don't mean the book . . .
- By DJW on 01-03-18
By: Masaji Ishikawa, and others
-
North Korea Undercover
- Inside the World's Most Secret State
- By: John Sweeney
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 646
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 582
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 582
North Korea is like no other tyranny on Earth. Its citizens are told their home is the greatest nation in the world, and Big Brother is always watching. It is Orwell's 1984 made reality. Huge factories with no staff or electricity, hospitals with no patients, uniformed child soldiers, and the world-famous and eerily empty DMZ - the Demilitarized Zone, where North Korea ends and South Korea begins - are all framed by a relentless flow of regime propaganda from omnipresent loudspeakers. Free speech is an illusion: one word out of line, and the gulag awaits.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Highly listenable, humorous and enlightening
- By Kevin Stokes on 09-09-15
By: John Sweeney
-
Escape from Camp 14
- One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
- By: Blaine Harden
- Narrated by: Blaine Harden
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have escaped. But Shin Donghyuk did. In Escape from Camp 14, acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk and through the lens of Shin's life unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Powerful
- By Rachel Green on 06-26-24
By: Blaine Harden
-
North Korea Confidential
- Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors
- By: Daniel Tudor, James Pearson
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 103
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 85
North Korea is one of the most troubled societies on earth. The country's 24 million people live under a violent dictatorship led by a single family, which relentlessly pursues the development of nuclear arms, which periodically incites risky military clashes with the larger, richer, liberal South, and which forces each and every person to play a role in the "theater state" even as it pays little more than lip service to the wellbeing of the overwhelming majority.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Interesting portrait of North Korea marred by awful pronunciation
- By Amazon Customer on 08-03-21
By: Daniel Tudor, and others
-
The Aquariums of Pyongyang
- By: Chol-hwan Kang, Pierre Rigoulot
- Narrated by: Stephen Park
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 284
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 246
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 247
Amid escalating nuclear tensions, Kim Jong-un and North Korea's other leaders have kept a tight grasp on their one-party state, quashing any nascent opposition movements and sending all suspected dissidents to its brutal concentration camps for "re-education". Kang Chol-Hwan is the first survivor of one of these camps to escape and tell his story to the world, documenting the extreme conditions in these gulags and providing a personal insight into life in North Korea.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Riveting!!
- By Iread on 11-12-20
By: Chol-hwan Kang, and others
-
The Girl with Seven Names
- A North Korean Defector’s Story
- By: Hyeonseo Lee, David John
- Narrated by: Josie Dunn
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,468
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,176
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 2,161
As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told, 'the best on the planet'?
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Did not like narrator
- By Linda H. Andreae on 10-09-19
By: Hyeonseo Lee, and others
-
A River in Darkness
- One Man's Escape from North Korea
- By: Masaji Ishikawa, Risa Kobayashi - translator, Martin Brown - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,921
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,371
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,361
Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Awful! And I don't mean the book . . .
- By DJW on 01-03-18
By: Masaji Ishikawa, and others
-
Nothing to Envy
- Ordinary Lives in North Korea
- By: Barbara Demick
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,086
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,189
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,185
Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years - a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung and the unchallenged rise to power of his son, Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Taking us into a landscape never before seen, Demick brings to life what it means to be an average Korean citizen, living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The man who wants to be GOD
- By Gohar on 05-08-10
By: Barbara Demick
-
A Thousand Miles to Freedom
- My Escape from North Korea
- By: Sebastien Falletti, Eunsun Kim
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,698
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,435
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,434
Eunsun Kim was born in North Korea, one of the most secretive and oppressive countries in the modern world. As a child, Eunsun loved her country...despite her school field trips to public executions, daily self-criticism sessions, and the increasing gnaw of hunger as the countrywide famine escalated. By the time she was 11 years old, Eunsun's father and grandparents had died of starvation, and Eunsun too was in danger of starving. Finally her mother decided to escape North Korea with Eunsun and her sister.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Not Much New Here, but Courage and Hope to Spare
- By Gillian on 03-25-16
By: Sebastien Falletti, and others
-
In Order to Live
- A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom
- By: Yeonmi Park
- Narrated by: Eji Kim
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 5,861
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,164
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 5,159
In In Order to Live, Yeonmi Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories. She tells with bravery and dignity for the first time the story of how she and her mother were betrayed and sold into sexual slavery in China and forced to suffer terrible psychological and physical hardship before they finally made their way to Seoul, South Korea - and to freedom.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Wow. What a story!
- By Jfm on 02-01-16
By: Yeonmi Park
-
Without You, There Is No Us
- My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite
- By: Suki Kim
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 931
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 813
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 813
Every day, three times a day, the students march in two straight lines, singing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: Without you, there is no motherland. Without you, there is no us. It is a chilling scene, but gradually Suki Kim, too, learns the tune and, without noticing, begins to hum it. It is 2011, and all universities in North Korea have been shut down for an entire year, the students sent to construction fields - except for the 270 students at the all-male Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST).
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The King and I meets Mary Poppins
- By Michael on 02-22-15
By: Suki Kim
-
The Real North Korea
- Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia
- By: Andrei Lankov
- Narrated by: Steven Roy Grimsley
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 596
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 522
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 521
Andrei Lankov has gone where few outsiders have ever been. A native of the former Soviet Union, he lived as an exchange student in North Korea in the 1980s. He has studied it for his entire career, using his fluency in Korean and personal contacts to build a rich, nuanced understanding. In The Real North Korea, Lankov substitutes cold, clear analysis for the overheated rhetoric surrounding this opaque police state.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Broad and nuanced account of North Korea
- By Neuron on 07-29-15
By: Andrei Lankov
-
Stars Between the Sun and Moon
- One Woman's Life in North Korea and Escape to Freedom
- By: Lucia Jang, Susan McClelland
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 209
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 194
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 194
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 rations. Nightly she bowed to her photo of Kim Il-Sung. It was the beginning of a chaotic period with a decade-long famine. 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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fantastic story. Well read.
- By Jfm on 02-20-16
By: Lucia Jang, and others
-
While Time Remains
- A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America
- By: Yeonmi Park
- Narrated by: Maureen Taylor
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 456
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 404
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 403
After defecting from North Korea, Yeonmi Park found liberty and freedom in America. But she also found a chilling crackdown on self-expression and thought that reminded her of the brutal regime she risked her life to escape. When she spoke out about the mass political indoctrination she saw around her in the United States, Park faced censorship and even death threats.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
This should be required reading. Amazing book
- By Amazon Customer on 02-15-23
By: Yeonmi Park
-
The Sister
- North Korea's Kim Yo Jong, the Most Dangerous Woman in the World
- By: Sung-Yoon Lee
- Narrated by: Dexter Galang
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars 14
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 11
The first woman ever to issue the threat of a nuclear weapons strike is not even officially a head of state. Kim Yo Jong is the sister of North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and, as their murderous regime’s chief propagandist, internal administrator, and foreign policymaker, she is the most powerful woman in North Korean history. Cruel but charming, she threatens and insults foreign leaders with sardonic wit, issuing proclamations and denunciations in her own name, a first for any woman in the Korean royal family.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Too many details distracting from the story
- By Lilia on 11-24-23
By: Sung-Yoon Lee
-
The Reluctant Communist
- My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea
- By: Charles Robert Jenkins, Jim Fredrick
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 102
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 92
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 92
In January of 1965, 24-year-old US Army sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins abandoned his post in South Korea, walked across the DMZ, and surrendered to communist North Korean soldiers standing sentry along the world's most heavily militarized border. He believed his action would get him back to the States and a short jail sentence. Instead he found himself in another sort of prison, where for 40 years he suffered under one of the most brutal and repressive regimes the world has known. This fast-paced, harrowing tale, told plainly and simply by Jenkins (with journalist Jim Frederick).
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent history and human story
- By Anonymous User on 09-16-21
By: Charles Robert Jenkins, and others
-
Born to Be Hanged
- The Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune
- By: Keith Thomson
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 311
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 264
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 264
The year is 1680, in the heart of the Golden Age of Piracy, and more than 300 daring, hardened pirates—a potent mix of low-life scallywags and a rare breed of gentlemen buccaneers—gather on a remote Caribbean island. The plan: to wreak havoc on the Pacific coastline, raiding cities, mines, and merchant ships. The booty: the bright gleam of Spanish gold and the chance to become a legend. So begins one of the greatest piratical adventures of the era—a story not given its full due until now.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating tale of 17th Piracy in the Americas
- By Xmeromotu on 07-11-22
By: Keith Thomson
-
The Wolf Age
- The Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons and the Battle for the North Sea Empire
- By: Tore Skeie
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 22
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22
The Wolf Age takes listeners on a thrilling journey through the bloody shared history of England and Scandinavia, and on across early medieval Europe, from the wild Norwegian fjords to the wealthy cities of Muslim Andalusia. Warfare, plotting, backstabbing, and bribery abound as Tore Skeie skillfully weaves sagas and skaldic poetry with breathless dramatization as he entertainingly brings the world of the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons to vivid life.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Riveting history/Perfect pronunciation!
- By Vance P. Freeman on 06-14-24
By: Tore Skeie
-
Korea
- A New History of South and North
- By: Victor Cha, Ramon Pacheco Pardo
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 15
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 14
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 14
Korea has a long, riveting history—it is also a divided nation. South Korea is a vibrant democracy, the tenth largest economy, and is home to a world-renowned culture. North Korea is ruled by the most authoritarian regime in the world, a poor country in a rich region, and is best known for the cult of personality surrounding the ruling Kim family. But both Koreas share a unique common history. Victor Cha and Ramon Pacheco Pardo draw on decades of research to explore the history of modern Korea, from the late nineteenth century, Japanese occupation, and Cold War division to the present day.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Clean and a quick view of Korean Geopolitics over the last century
- By Dr. Krishnendu Ray on 07-08-24
By: Victor Cha, and others
What listeners say about Dear Leader
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- tooonce72
- 12-28-14
Interesting and Aggravating at the Same Time
This book was not what I was expecting. I happened to be reading this while North Korean was in the news quite a bit.
The author, Jang Jin-Sung, was one of the admitted North Korean socially chosen because of his literary ability. During his time in North Korea he was granted numerous privileges. He had personal encounter with Kim Jong-il, which was interesting and quite telling. I was expecting a bit more information of his day to day life.
Though his journey to South Korea was at times exciting, at other times I felt the author continued to feel privileged. He survived because of the kindness of others. When you consider that he didn't help anyone less privileged when he was in the elite group yet upon being in need, his survival was paramount to everything. The author never seemed too concerned about the danger he put those that aided him in. Once he found assistance – he held on to them till he brought them danger, with little regard or concern for them. He called the first family that helped him, to ask for additional information and assistance, more than repeatedly,fully aware of the danger he was putting them in. It was disturbing to me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- MJ
- 02-25-19
Fantastic! Fantastic! Fantastic!
I read every book I can find about North Korean refugees. This book has such a different perspective. The author has written his account beautifully. Please don’t pass this book by!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- horsestuff
- 08-21-15
Informative exciting heartfelt
A education into the workings of North Korea that reads like a suspense novel. Beautifully read. Worth reading
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Beth
- 07-31-16
Amazing
Total 5 star, amazing book and narration. I would totally recommend this to anyone
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- motiva8in
- 08-16-16
interesting story
I love story's of people that have over come adversity . the reader did a good job of telling the story he kept my attention. I will look for other story by this reader.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Thaddeus Hancock
- 08-22-15
Mind Bending. Freedom is not free. What a story <br /><br />
this is a life changing story. I wonder about his parents. I can't help but wonder what I might do in the same situation. this is brutal.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story3 out of 5 stars
- Bob
- 03-07-15
Absolutely Fascinating!
An absolutely riveting story told with passion and great sincerity. One of the best and most informative books on North Korea I have ever read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Corey Olson
- 03-25-15
A moving and powerful story
After you finish reading this book you will feel humbled. Humbled because of how most of us take simple things for granted in our lives.
I won't give away any of the story with this review.
I will just leave anyone wondering if they should buy this book with this.
At the least it's an interesting listen. At best your own life will be enriched by the experience!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- M. Davis
- 04-16-16
A rare and interesting perspective on the leadership of North Korea
This is a very intimate perspective from an insider in North Korea's power structure. Even though the story seems to drag at times due to the in-depth description of his fears (which he had good reason to have), the over all story was both informative and enthralling.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 08-07-17
An amazing story
What an amazing story of escape! It's so unbelievable that a country like this still exists today in this modern world. The excellent narrator brought just the right tone throughout the entire ordeal. I'm definitely recommending this book to my family and friends. It sure makes me appreciate America and freedom.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!