When Jun Do was a child living in an orphanage in North Korea, one of his responsibilities was to decide which of his peers would be punished. That was just the beginning. As an adult, he was often in the impossible position of trying to let the most innocent suffer the least. Living with his decisions requires creativity. I have tried to put The Orphan Master’s Son out of my mind since I read it last July, but this compelling, violent, Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel has stuck with me more than any other book that I’ve read this year.
Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master’s Son (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2012), 38.