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Under the Same Sky
- From Starvation in North Korea to Salvation in America
- Narrated by: Raymond Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
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Publisher's Summary
A searing story of starvation and survival in North Korea, followed by a dramatic escape, rescue by activists and Christian missionaries, and success in the United States thanks to newfound faith and courage.
Inside the hidden and mysterious world of North Korea, Joseph Kim lived a young boy's normal life until he was five. Then disaster struck: the first wave of the Great Famine, a long, terrible ordeal that killed millions, including his father, and sent others, like his mother and only sister, on desperate escape routes into China.
Alone on the streets, Joseph learned to beg and steal. He had nothing but a street-hardened survival instinct. Finally, in desperation, he, too, crossed a frozen river to escape to China. There a kindly Christian woman took him in, kept him hidden from the authorities, and gave him hope. Soon, through an underground network of activists, he was spirited to the American consulate and became one of just a handful of North Koreans to be brought to the US as refugees.
Joseph knew no English and had never been a good student. Yet the kindness of his foster family changed his life. He turned a new leaf, became a dedicated student, mastered English, and made it to college, where he is now thriving thanks to his faith and inner strength.
Under the Same Sky is an unforgettable story of suffering and redemption.
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What listeners say about Under the Same Sky
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- R3v13w3r
- 07-15-15
Tugs at the heart strings
Not only was is a great book but the reader really invokes the emotions of Joseph.
1 person found this helpful
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- Rj
- 06-04-15
Interesting, but a bit unbelievable.
What made the experience of listening to Under the Same Sky the most enjoyable?
The narrator sounds very authentic. Pacing, speed and pronunciation is spot on. Nothing is awkward.
How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?
Some of the story was not particularly believable. After listening for a while, I was surprised to find out that all that had been shared were memories before the age of 7. While I would expect someone to have clear memories of important events in life, such vivid memories at such a young age, so many years later after starvation pushes it for authenticity.
The examples of fighting seemed fictionalized.
Any additional comments?
Not bad if you're a fan of North Korean memoirs.
1 person found this helpful
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- brian
- 06-03-15
All about survival.
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I would for the history if the friend wants to know more about North Korea.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Under the Same Sky?
The scene in the prologue where the main character has to fight off his prison guard, and he manages to win, and takes his place.
What about Raymond Lee’s performance did you like?
It was well done, but at times the accent was rather thick where I couldn't understand some parts.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes
Any additional comments?
A must-have for people wanting to know more about North Korea.
1 person found this helpful
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- Laura Friis Christoffersen
- 01-14-22
A humbling experience
Following Joseph’s journey was a gut wrenching adventure, but it’s aboslutely worth a read. It’s a culture shock to be introduced to the workings of Noeth Korea but I think a lot of people really should read this
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- Michael James
- 02-18-21
Terrific
Wonderfully executed insight into North Korea in general and the plight of refugees everywhere. Highly recommend.
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- Edgar Escarcega
- 10-03-17
Amazing!
It’s so inspiring to hear this. This book really puts in perspective the things we take for granted as Americans, but more importantly the difference we can make with as little as a chicken wing.
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- Jacqueline W. Teachey
- 09-25-17
A pretty interesting read
I enjoyed reading this story, though after awhile it blends in with the many other stories of escaping North Korea. Still, it is a touching story filled with sorrow and hope.
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- Meagan vR
- 12-30-16
North Korea refugee stories: Skip this one
Seems like he just wrote a generic story to cash in. Pretty much a run of the mill scenario of events repeated over and over. There are much better books out there about escaping North Korea.
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Amazing book
- By Antoine on 12-14-18
By: Daniel Tudor
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Nothing to Envy
- Ordinary Lives in North Korea
- By: Barbara Demick
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years - a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung and the unchallenged rise to power of his son, Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Taking us into a landscape never before seen, Demick brings to life what it means to be an average Korean citizen, living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today.
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The man who wants to be GOD
- By Gohar on 05-08-10
By: Barbara Demick
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A River in Darkness
- One Man's Escape from North Korea
- By: Masaji Ishikawa, Risa Kobayashi - translator, Martin Brown - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian.
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Awful! And I don't mean the book . . .
- By DJW on 01-03-18
By: Masaji Ishikawa, and others
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Stars Between the Sun and Moon
- One Woman's Life in North Korea and Escape to Freedom
- By: Lucia Jang, Susan McClelland
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Born in 1970s North Korea, Lucia Jang grew up in a typical household - her parents worked in the factories, and the family scraped by on rations. Nightly she bowed to her photo of Kim Il-Sung. It was the beginning of a chaotic period with a decade-long famine. Jang married an abusive man who sold their baby. She left him and went home to help her family by illegally crossing the river to China to trade goods. She was caught and imprisoned twice.
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Fantastic story. Well read.
- By Jfm on 02-20-16
By: Lucia Jang, and others
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Without You, There Is No Us
- My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite
- By: Suki Kim
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Every day, three times a day, the students march in two straight lines, singing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: Without you, there is no motherland. Without you, there is no us. It is a chilling scene, but gradually Suki Kim, too, learns the tune and, without noticing, begins to hum it. It is 2011, and all universities in North Korea have been shut down for an entire year, the students sent to construction fields - except for the 270 students at the all-male Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST).
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The King and I meets Mary Poppins
- By Michael on 02-22-15
By: Suki Kim
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The Girl with Seven Names
- A North Korean Defector’s Story
- By: Hyeonseo Lee, David John
- Narrated by: Josie Dunn
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told, 'the best on the planet'?
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Did not like narrator
- By Linda H. Andreae on 10-09-19
By: Hyeonseo Lee, and others
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Korea
- The Impossible Country
- By: Daniel Tudor
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Long overshadowed by Japan and China, South Korea is a small country that happens to be one of the great national success stories of the postwar period. From a failed state with no democratic tradition, ruined and partitioned by war, and sapped by a half-century of colonial rule, South Korea transformed itself in just 50 years into an economic powerhouse and a democracy that serves as a model for other countries. With no natural resources and a tradition of authoritarian rule, Korea managed to accomplish a second Asian miracle.
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Amazing book
- By Antoine on 12-14-18
By: Daniel Tudor
Related to this topic
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A River in Darkness
- One Man's Escape from North Korea
- By: Masaji Ishikawa, Risa Kobayashi - translator, Martin Brown - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian.
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Awful! And I don't mean the book . . .
- By DJW on 01-03-18
By: Masaji Ishikawa, and others
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Stars Between the Sun and Moon
- One Woman's Life in North Korea and Escape to Freedom
- By: Lucia Jang, Susan McClelland
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in 1970s North Korea, Lucia Jang grew up in a typical household - her parents worked in the factories, and the family scraped by on rations. Nightly she bowed to her photo of Kim Il-Sung. It was the beginning of a chaotic period with a decade-long famine. Jang married an abusive man who sold their baby. She left him and went home to help her family by illegally crossing the river to China to trade goods. She was caught and imprisoned twice.
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Fantastic story. Well read.
- By Jfm on 02-20-16
By: Lucia Jang, and others
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Every Falling Star
- The True Story of How I Survived and Escaped North Korea
- By: Sungju Lee, Susan McClelland
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Every Falling Star, the first book to portray contemporary North Korea to a young audience, is the intense memoir of a North Korean boy named Sungju who is forced at age 12 to live on the streets and fend for himself. To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving, fighting, begging, and stealing rides on cargo trains. Sungju richly recreates his scabrous story, depicting what it was like for a boy alone to create a new family with his gang, his "brothers".
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Riveting, sad, and inspirational
- By Janis Creason on 09-17-16
By: Sungju Lee, and others
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Remember Us
- My Journey from the Shtetl Through the Holocaust
- By: Vic Shayne, Martin Small
- Narrated by: Peter Altschuler
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Remember Us is a look back at the lost world of the shtetl: a wise Zayde offering prophetic and profound words to his grandson, the rich experience of Shabbos, and the treasure of a loving family. All this is torn apart with the arrival of the Holocaust, beginning a crucible fraught with twists and turns so unpredictable and surprising that they defy any attempt to find reason within them. Through the eyes of 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Martin Small, we learn that these priceless memories that are too painful to remember are also too painful to forget.
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A Tragic and Rich Life, With Lessons For All
- By still reading on 03-17-16
By: Vic Shayne, and others
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In Order to Live
- A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom
- By: Yeonmi Park
- Narrated by: Eji Kim
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In In Order to Live, Yeonmi Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories. She tells with bravery and dignity for the first time the story of how she and her mother were betrayed and sold into sexual slavery in China and forced to suffer terrible psychological and physical hardship before they finally made their way to Seoul, South Korea - and to freedom.
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Wow. What a story!
- By Jfm on 02-01-16
By: Yeonmi Park
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Long Journey Home
- A Young Girl's Memoir of Surviving the Holocaust
- By: Lucy Lipiner
- Narrated by: Lucy Lipiner
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The summer of 1939 turned out to be the last summer of author Lucy Lipiner's childhood. On September 1, when she was six years old, her parents roused Lucy and her older sister from their beds, and with other relatives in tow fled their town of Sucha and the invasion by Nazi Germany.
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E X T R A O R D I N A R Y -- Goosebumps
- By L. Pelto on 02-26-15
By: Lucy Lipiner
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A River in Darkness
- One Man's Escape from North Korea
- By: Masaji Ishikawa, Risa Kobayashi - translator, Martin Brown - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian.
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Awful! And I don't mean the book . . .
- By DJW on 01-03-18
By: Masaji Ishikawa, and others