''I am most grateful for two things: that I was born in North Korea, and that I escaped from North Korea.''

Yeonmi Park was not dreaming of freedom when she escaped from North Korea. She didn''t even know what it meant to be free. All she knew was that she was running for her life, that if she and her family stayed behind they would die - from starvation, or disease, or even execution.

This book is the story of Park''s struggle to survive in the darkest, most repressive country on earth; her harrowing escape through China''s underworld of smugglers and human traffickers; and then her escape from China across the Gobi desert to Mongolia, with only the stars to guide her way, and from there to South Korea and at last to freedom; and finally her emergence as a leading human rights activist - all before her 21st birthday.

''Clear-eyed and devastating'' Observer