Sungju grew up in Pyongyang, North Korea going to a great school, studying martial arts, and training to be a great military leader. When his father does something to displease the government, Sungju, his mother, and father are sent to the countryside where people are publicly executed for crimes against the state and children and adults are starving to death. By the time Sungju is twelve, he is on his own after both his father and mother leave to find food and do not return. In order to survive, Sungju, along with a couple of other orphan boys his same age, create a gang to steal, fight, and beg. They struggle to survive violent rival gangs, arrest, imprisonment, and even death. Learn more about one young man's fight to survive in this memoir of growing up in contemporary North Korea.
