WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZENATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST * LONGLISTED FOR THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION’S ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL * WINNER OF THE CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYThe Washington Post * Entertainment Weekly * The Wall Street Journal * Los Angeles Times * San Francisco Chronicle * Financial Times * Newsweek/The Daily Beast * The Plain Dealer * St. Louis Post-Dispatch * Milwaukee Journal Sentinel * Slate * Salon * BookPage * Shelf AwarenessPak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother—a singer “stolen” to Pyongyang—and an influential father who runs a work camp for orphans. Superiors in the state soon recognize the boy’s loyalty and keen instincts. Considering himself “a humble citizen of the greatest nation in the world,” Jun Do rises in the ranks. He becomes a professional kidnapper who must navigate the shifting rules, arbitrary violence, and baffling demands of his Korean overlords in order to stay alive. Driven to the absolute limit of what any human being could endure, he boldly takes on the treacherous role of rival to Kim Jong Il in an attempt to save the woman he lov...