{"id":50222,"date":"2023-01-24T12:12:30","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T17:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=50222"},"modified":"2023-01-18T12:10:38","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T17:10:38","slug":"the-hard-road-out-one-womans-escape-from-north-korea-by-jihyun-park-and-seh-lynn-chai-translated-by-sarah-baldwin-beneich-in-booklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-hard-road-out-one-womans-escape-from-north-korea-by-jihyun-park-and-seh-lynn-chai-translated-by-sarah-baldwin-beneich-in-booklist\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hard Road Out: One Woman\u2019s Escape from North Korea by Jihyun Park and Seh-lynn Chai, translated by Sarah Baldwin-Beneich [in Booklist]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-50127\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/11\/Hard-Road-Out-Jihyun-Park-BookDragon-523x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"523\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/11\/Hard-Road-Out-Jihyun-Park-BookDragon-523x800.jpg 523w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/11\/Hard-Road-Out-Jihyun-Park-BookDragon.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 523px) 100vw, 523px\" \/>Jihyun Park is a twice-escaped defector. Seh-lynn Chai is initially her hired English translator, then her friend, even sister. \u201cJihyun is from the North and I am from the South,\u201d Chai writes, \u201cbut we share a single identity: we\u2019re both Korean.\u201d At their 2014 first meeting in Manchester, Chai interviews Park in Korean for an Amnesty International documentary.<\/p>\n<p>Two years later, perhaps the time \u201cneeded for trust to grow,\u201d Park asks Chai to write her story. Chai accepts because she \u201cwant[s] to give voice to history\u2019s invisible people.&#8221; Polyglot Chai, interestingly, writes in French, which translator Sarah Baldwin-Beneich English-enables.<\/p>\n<p>Middle-child Park grew up fervently believing in the resilient post-war miracle that was North Korea. But adulthood brought undeniable awareness of the regime\u2019s brutality and the widespread starvation. She escaped to China, only to be sold into slavery by her mother and sister. Her harrowing journey eventually brought her to safety in England.<\/p>\n<p>Chai attentively ciphers Park\u2019s survival, intertwining her own soul-awakening empathy for their Korean history and heritage. Any literary shortcomings are overshadowed by the gravity of Park\u2019s testimony; caring audiences won\u2019t turn away.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.booklistonline.com\/The-Hard-Road-Out-One-Woman-s-Escape-from-North-Korea-\/pid=9769855\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8220;Nonfiction,&#8221; <em>Booklist<\/em>, December 1, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers:<\/strong> Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jihyun Park is a twice-escaped defector. Seh-lynn Chai is initially her hired English translator, then her friend, even sister. \u201cJihyun is from the North and I am from the South,\u201d Chai writes, \u201cbut we share a single identity: we\u2019re both Korean.\u201d At their 2014 first&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,37,107,20,1343,6535,66],"tags":[6608,6668,58,10,10724,24,51,25,10725,129,39,432,10723,10726,44,146,45],"class_list":["post-50222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-korean","category-memoir","category-nonfiction","category-north-korean","category-repost","category-translation","tag-bookdragon","tag-booklist","tag-coming-of-age","tag-family","tag-hard-road-out","tag-historical","tag-identity","tag-immigration","tag-jihyun-park","tag-mother-daughter-relationship","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-refugees","tag-sarah-baldwin-beneich","tag-seh-lynn-chai","tag-siblings","tag-slavery","tag-war"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Hard Road Out: One Woman\u2019s Escape from North Korea by Jihyun Park and Seh-lynn Chai, translated by Sarah Baldwin-Beneich [in Booklist] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-hard-road-out-one-womans-escape-from-north-korea-by-jihyun-park-and-seh-lynn-chai-translated-by-sarah-baldwin-beneich-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Hard Road Out: One Woman\u2019s Escape from North Korea by Jihyun Park and Seh-lynn Chai, translated by Sarah Baldwin-Beneich [in Booklist] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jihyun Park is a twice-escaped defector. Seh-lynn Chai is initially her hired English translator, then her friend, even sister. \u201cJihyun is from the North and I am from the South,\u201d Chai writes, \u201cbut we share a single identity: we\u2019re both Korean.\u201d At their 2014 first...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-hard-road-out-one-womans-escape-from-north-korea-by-jihyun-park-and-seh-lynn-chai-translated-by-sarah-baldwin-beneich-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-24T17:12:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-01-18T17:10:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/11\/Hard-Road-Out-Jihyun-Park-BookDragon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"918\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Hard Road Out: One Woman\u2019s Escape from North Korea by Jihyun Park and Seh-lynn Chai, translated by Sarah Baldwin-Beneich [in Booklist] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-hard-road-out-one-womans-escape-from-north-korea-by-jihyun-park-and-seh-lynn-chai-translated-by-sarah-baldwin-beneich-in-booklist\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Hard Road Out: One Woman\u2019s Escape from North Korea by Jihyun Park and Seh-lynn Chai, translated by Sarah Baldwin-Beneich [in Booklist] - BookDragon","og_description":"Jihyun Park is a twice-escaped defector. 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