In the Tunnel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Trapped in an enemy tunnel, a young refugee experiences the Korean War firsthand in this searing story of survival, loss, and hope, a companion to the Freeman Award-winning novel Brother’s Keeper.
Myung-gi knows war is coming: War between North and South Korea. Life in communist North Korea has become more and more unbearable—there is no freedom of speech, movement, association, or thought—and his parents have been carefully planning the family’s escape.
But when his father is abducted by the secret police, all those plans fall apart. How can Myung-gi leave North Korea without his dad? Especially when he believes that the abduction was his fault?
Set during a cataclysmic war which shaped the world we know today, this is the story of one boy’s coming-of-age during a time when inhumanity, lawlessness, and terror reigned supreme. Myung-gi, his mother, and his twelve-year-old sister Yoomee do everything they can to protect one another. But gentle, quiet, bookish Myung-gi has plans to find his father at any cost—even if it means joining the army and being sent to the front lines, where his deepest fears await him.
A Bank Street Best Book of the Year - Outstanding Merit
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
A Book Riot Best New Book of 2023
"An absolute must-read."—Booklist, starred review
"Vivid, powerful."—School Library Journal
"Moving."—Publishers Weekly
"Searing. . . . Beautifully written."—Book Riot
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This moving historical novel from Lee (Brother's Keeper) opens in October 1952, centering bookish Myung-gi, who has joined the South Korean army in order to find his Ahpa. After an explosion traps 16-year-old Myung-gi in an enemy tunnel at the North-South Korean border, alternating chapters trace both his present awaiting death in the tunnel and past experiences beginning in 1945. Emotional third-person narration recounts Myung-gi's family's reaction to historical events, including the feeling of freedom at the end of Japan's imperial rule and rising tensions between Soviet-occupied northern Korea, where the family lives, and U.S.-occupied southern Korea. Ahpa's criticism of the occupying governments, his smuggling in Western books for Myung-gi, and his previous role as a factory owner necessitates the family's departure from their home to Busan. Myung-gi's father is taken by the Red Army before the family can execute their planned escape, however, and Myung-gi, younger sister Yoomee, and their Uhma must make a harrowing journey south to Busan alone, to avoid Myung-gi's recruitment. Interspersed between harrowing scenes of travel and remembrances of Myung-gi's father are the youth's thoughtful ruminations on the human cost of war. Lee compassionately depicts the difficult journey and Myung-gi's grappling with finding normalcy in this well-paced story about an underreported war. Ages 8–12.