All Woman and Springtime

"A gripping novel" of two North Korean teenage girls, and their harrowing journey as they escape the authoritarian state (O, The Oprah Magazine).

Before she met Il-sun in an orphanage, Gi was a hollow husk of a girl, broken from growing up in one of North Korea's forced-labor camps. A mathematical genius, she learned to cope with pain by retreating into a realm of numbers and calculations. Gi becomes enamored with the brash and radiant Il-sun, a friend she describes as "all woman and sprin...