Author Adam Johnson, one of America’s Best New Voices, presents the Dutch translation of his latest novel The Orphan Master's Son at BorderKitchen.

The Orphan Master's Son is the story of Pak Jun Do, a ‘humble citizen’ of North Korea, ‘the greatest nation in the world’. He is the son of a disappeared mother and a powerful father who is in charge of an orphanage called Long Tomorrows. Jun Do establishes a career for himself by becoming a soldier, a spy and eventually a professional kidnapper who must navigate the shifting rules, arbitrary violence, and baffling demands of his Korean overlords in order to stay alive. Driven to the absolute limit of what one could endure, he boldly takes on the treacherous role of rival to Kim Jong-il in an attempt to save the woman he loves – Sun Moon, a legendary actress ‘so pure, she didn’t know what starving people looked like.’

Recently, North Korea has been at the centre of the world’s attention, following the death of Kim Jong-il. This gives The Orphan Master's Son a strong sense of momentum. Part breathless thriller, part story of innocence lost, part story of romantic love, it is also a riveting portrait of a world before now hidden from view. In 2007, Adam Johnson traveled through North Korea himself in order to prepare for his book.

During BorderKitchen, Adam Johnson will be interviewed by Dutch author and journalist Henk van Straten (Nieuwe Revu, Vrij Nederland).  

Location: Weimarstraat 36, The Hague.
Start: 20.00 hrs
Tickets at € 5,00 can be reserved by calling 070-3462355 (Mon-Fri) or sending an e-mail to info@borderkitchen.nl.

Acclaim for The Orphan Master's Son:

'In making his hero, and the nightmare he lives through, come so thoroughly alive, Mr. Johnson has written a daring and remarkable novel, a novel that not only opens a frightening window on the mysterious kingdom of North Korea, but one that also excavates the very meaning of love and sacrifice.'
- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times 

'Impossible to forget... Adam Johnson unleashes a big, thrilling, and fully realized talent.'
- Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad