Unbroken Spirits

A phenomenal best-seller in Japan, Suh Sung's memoir is at once a painstaking and painful description of prison life in South Korea during Park Chung Hee's dictatorial rule, and a memorable and moving testimony to the resiliency of the human spirit. Unbroken Spirits instructs, instigates, and inspires. I recommend it heartily. -- John Lie, author of Han Unbound: The Political Economy of South Korea
Unbroken Spirits—Suh's pain-filled autobiography about his life in South Korea from 1971 to 1990, as a victim of abduction, torture and imprisonment from the age of 26 through to 45—documents a sordid yet important chapter in Korean history and tells an intriguing personal story. * Pacific Affairs *
In a well-translated, informative and sometimes moving account, Suh Sung tells of his nineteen-year detention in South Korea’s prisons. . . . Despite its grim subject, the book has a warm, human heart, reflecting the endurance of its author. . . . Very readable and highly recommended. -- Philip Gowman * London Korean Links *
. . . A well-translated, informative and sometimes moving account . . . Despite its grim subject, the book has a warm, human heart, reflecting the endurance of its author. Along the way we learn interesting facts about Japanese discrimination against their Korean population in the post-war years, and we learn that Oh Dae-su's wall-punching exercises in Oldboy were not a perverse invention of Park Chan-wook: this is, or was, a fist-toughening practice widespread in Korea's prisons. Very readable and highly recommended. * Korean Top News and Blogs, December 3, 2009 *
An extremely important account of the mood of injustice that prevailed in South Korea during the period of near-dictatorship in South Korea that lasted from 1948 to 1987. The experience of Suh Sung was one of the most egregious examples of injustice in that period. His story should be made known to the world. -- James B. Palais, University of Washington