Try free for 30 days
-
Without You, There Is No Us
- My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Without You, There Is No Us
Buy Now for $26.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
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
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 64
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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Incredible. Could not stop.
- By Anonymous User on 03-01-2024
-
While Time Remains
- A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America
- By: Yeonmi Park
- Narrated by: Maureen Taylor
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 24
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 22
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 23
After defecting from North Korea, Yeonmi Park found liberty and freedom in America. But she also found a chilling crackdown on self-expression and thought that reminded her of the brutal regime she risked her life to escape. When she spoke out about the mass political indoctrination she saw around her in the United States, Park faced censorship and even death threats.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
No Democracy Outside America
- By James on 12-02-2024
-
The Hard Road Out
- One Woman’s Escape from North Korea
- By: Jihyun Park, Seh-Lynn Chai, Sarah Baldwin - translator
- Narrated by: Rosa Escoda
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 4
North Korea is an open-air prison from which there is no escape. Only a handful of men and women have succeeded. Jihyun Park is one of these rare survivors. Twice she left the land of the ‘socialist miracle’ to flee famine and dictatorship. By the age of 29, she had already witnessed a lifetime of suffering. Family members had died of starvation; her brother was beaten nearly to death by soldiers. Even smiling and laughing was discouraged.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Saddend
- By Anonymous User on 11-06-2022
-
The Teacher's Pet
- By: Hedley Thomas
- Narrated by: Hedley Thomas
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 98
If you thought you knew the story of The Teacher's Pet, get ready to be shocked. Hedley Thomas takes you behind the scenes with a blow-by-blow account of one of the most intriguing and enduring murder mysteries of our time - the crime, the podcast investigation, the sexual exploitation of teenage students, the courtroom drama - and how justice was finally delivered.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
What a journey!
- By Anonymous User on 12-11-2023
-
Not Forgotten
- The True Story of My Imprisonment in North Korea
- By: Kenneth Bae, Mark Tabb
- Narrated by: Wayne Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 6
Not Forgotten is a modern story of intrigue, suspense, and heart. Driven by his passion to help the people of North Korea, Bae moves to neighboring China to lead guided tours into the secretive nation. Six years later, after 18 successful excursions in and out of the country, Ken is suddenly stopped at the border: He inadvertently brought his hard drive, which reveals the true nature of his visits, to customs. He is arrested, brought to Pyongyang for further questioning, and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. His crime? Attempting to overthrow the North Korean government.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
An interesting story if you can sort through the noise
- By Anonymous User on 20-07-2019
-
The Chief Witness
- Escape from China's Modern-Day Concentration Camps
- By: Sayragul Sauytbay, Alexandra Cavelius
- Narrated by: Xifeng Brooks
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 5
Born in China’s northwestern province, Sayragul Sauytbay trained as a doctor before being appointed a senior civil servant. But her life was upended when the Chinese authorities incarcerated her. Her crime? Being Kazakh, one of China’s ethnic minorities. The northwestern province borders the largest number of foreign nations and is the point in China that is the closest to Europe. In recent years, it has become home to more than 1,200 penal camps - modern-day gulags that are estimated to house three million members of the Kazakh and Uyghur minorities.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
everyone should read this
- By Kindle Customer on 06-10-2022
-
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
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 64
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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Incredible. Could not stop.
- By Anonymous User on 03-01-2024
-
While Time Remains
- A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America
- By: Yeonmi Park
- Narrated by: Maureen Taylor
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 24
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 22
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 23
After defecting from North Korea, Yeonmi Park found liberty and freedom in America. But she also found a chilling crackdown on self-expression and thought that reminded her of the brutal regime she risked her life to escape. When she spoke out about the mass political indoctrination she saw around her in the United States, Park faced censorship and even death threats.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
No Democracy Outside America
- By James on 12-02-2024
-
The Hard Road Out
- One Woman’s Escape from North Korea
- By: Jihyun Park, Seh-Lynn Chai, Sarah Baldwin - translator
- Narrated by: Rosa Escoda
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 4
North Korea is an open-air prison from which there is no escape. Only a handful of men and women have succeeded. Jihyun Park is one of these rare survivors. Twice she left the land of the ‘socialist miracle’ to flee famine and dictatorship. By the age of 29, she had already witnessed a lifetime of suffering. Family members had died of starvation; her brother was beaten nearly to death by soldiers. Even smiling and laughing was discouraged.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Saddend
- By Anonymous User on 11-06-2022
-
The Teacher's Pet
- By: Hedley Thomas
- Narrated by: Hedley Thomas
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 98
If you thought you knew the story of The Teacher's Pet, get ready to be shocked. Hedley Thomas takes you behind the scenes with a blow-by-blow account of one of the most intriguing and enduring murder mysteries of our time - the crime, the podcast investigation, the sexual exploitation of teenage students, the courtroom drama - and how justice was finally delivered.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
What a journey!
- By Anonymous User on 12-11-2023
-
Not Forgotten
- The True Story of My Imprisonment in North Korea
- By: Kenneth Bae, Mark Tabb
- Narrated by: Wayne Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 6
Not Forgotten is a modern story of intrigue, suspense, and heart. Driven by his passion to help the people of North Korea, Bae moves to neighboring China to lead guided tours into the secretive nation. Six years later, after 18 successful excursions in and out of the country, Ken is suddenly stopped at the border: He inadvertently brought his hard drive, which reveals the true nature of his visits, to customs. He is arrested, brought to Pyongyang for further questioning, and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. His crime? Attempting to overthrow the North Korean government.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
An interesting story if you can sort through the noise
- By Anonymous User on 20-07-2019
-
The Chief Witness
- Escape from China's Modern-Day Concentration Camps
- By: Sayragul Sauytbay, Alexandra Cavelius
- Narrated by: Xifeng Brooks
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 5
Born in China’s northwestern province, Sayragul Sauytbay trained as a doctor before being appointed a senior civil servant. But her life was upended when the Chinese authorities incarcerated her. Her crime? Being Kazakh, one of China’s ethnic minorities. The northwestern province borders the largest number of foreign nations and is the point in China that is the closest to Europe. In recent years, it has become home to more than 1,200 penal camps - modern-day gulags that are estimated to house three million members of the Kazakh and Uyghur minorities.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
everyone should read this
- By Kindle Customer on 06-10-2022
Editorial reviews
Publisher's Summary
A haunting memoir of teaching English to the sons of North Korea's ruling class during the last six months of Kim Jong-il's reign
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), a walled compound where portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il look on impassively from the walls of every room, and where Suki has accepted a job teaching English. Over the next six months, she will eat three meals a day with her young charges and struggle to teach them to write, all under the watchful eye of the regime.
Life at PUST is lonely and claustrophobic, especially for Suki, whose letters are read by censors and who must hide her notes and photographs not only from her minders but from her colleagues - evangelical Christian missionaries who don't know or choose to ignore that Suki doesn't share their faith. As the weeks pass, she is mystified by how easily her students lie, unnerved by their obedience to the regime. At the same time, they offer Suki tantalizing glimpses of their private selves - their boyish enthusiasm, their eagerness to please, the flashes of curiosity that have not yet been extinguished. She in turn begins to hint at the existence of a world beyond their own - at such exotic activities as surfing the Internet or traveling freely and, more dangerously, at electoral democracy and other ideas forbidden in a country where defectors risk torture and execution. But when Kim Jong-il dies, and the boys she has come to love appear devastated, she wonders whether the gulf between her world and theirs can ever be bridged.
Critic Reviews
More from the same
What listeners say about Without You, There Is No Us
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cazzik day
- 29-07-2017
Engaging & haunting
This book gives you an amazing insight into a country that is almost forgotten and lost to our modern world.
A country only ever mentioned when talking about war. A country that few see and even fewer see behind the curtain.
A look at the everyday life, the diversity and difference. An almost 9hour audio book that I'm about to finish 3 days after purchasing. I cannot stop listening!
Apart from it being an engaging story: the person who voices this story does it justice in a way few audio books do.
The voice is of a person whose pronunciation of the English is perfect AND the Korean!
They use different tones & pitches for different people without it ever seeming like a caricature or overacting.
Would recommend to all.
This book made me want to go to North Korea: to experience (as much as the government will allow) their culture and country for myself!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- Theres
- 14-07-2019
Interesting and digestable
How frustrating it was for Suki to live as a double agent in the DPRK... this was relatable as a listener who yearned for more depth of information - the information that was just not accessible to Suki, or the rest of the North Korean people for that matter.
Respectfully written and well narrated, it was a break from the more emotionally tolling books out there on North Korea.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- Maniatakos
- 23-07-2017
Great book a must read/listen
Good insight to North Korea. A bit naive and biased at times about western world.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Japheth
- 28-01-2018
A fascinating glimpse
As someone very much unfamiliar with North Korean culture or history besides that portrayed in Western media, this was a fascinating glimpse into a part of it.
I also found the author's parallels with Christianity thought provoking.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mary
- 29-11-2015
Amazing story
I strongly recommend this book. As someone who knows very little about the country, I found this such an interesting read, and admire the author's bravery for living in (and writing about) Pyongyang. It's both touching to hear the stories of the author's interactions with the students, and chilling to hear how almost every detail of their lives is regimented.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mish
- 22-12-2020
Amazing brave journalism should have film adaption
Suki Kim is Brave, compassionate and has done amazing undercover investigation into young elite of North Korea. not only that, her brave teaching work could be revolutionary in North Korea opening its borders.
I read this after watching a interview and I was so impressed in her intelligence and her viewpoints, about how the west misrepresent North Korea and the whole Korean war. This book deserves a converted journalism award plus Hollywood film adaption.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
