In the Shadow of the Sun

Hatchet in North Korea: A sister and brother go on the run with explosive forbidden photographs in this gripping and timely survival adventure.

North Korea is known as the most repressive country on Earth, with a dictatorial leader, a starving population, and harsh punishment for rebellion.

Perfect place for a family vacation, right?

Yet that's exactly where Mia Andrews finds herself, on a tour with her aid-worker father and fractious older brother, Simon. Mia was adopted from South Korea as a baby, and the trip raises tough questions about who she really is. Then her dad is arrested for spying, just as forbidden photographs of North Korean slave-labor camps fall into Mia's hands. The only way to save Dad: get the pictures into China, over a hundred miles away. Thus Mia and Simon set off on a harrowing journey without food, money, or shelter, in a land where anyone who sees them might turn them in, and getting caught could mean prison -- or worse.

Rooted in years of research and written with deep sympathy for the North Korean people, In the Shadow of the Sun is an unforgettable story of strength and survival.