How long is it?
480 pages in the Random House Trade Paperbacks 2012 paperback edition.
Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Mystery & Thriller
The Orphan Master's Son
Highly regardedPulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2013Reading facts
✓ Checked- Reading effort
- 59 / 100High
- Length
- 480 pagesRandom House Trade Paperbacks · 2012
- Reading time
- 9 h 30 minat 50 pages an hour ·
- Pace
- Variable
- Emotional intensity
- 4 / 5
About 9 h 30 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 20 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
Pak Jun Do grows up in a North Korean orphanage believing its cruel master is his father. Under Kim Jong Il’s regime, he becomes a tunnel fighter, kidnapper and radio operator, surviving assignments whose rules can change without warning. His service brings him close to powerful officials and Sun Moon, a celebrated actress whose state-controlled life becomes entangled with his own.
Reader notes
Darkly comic and often brutal, the literary thriller presents competing versions of events through third-person narration, an interrogator’s testimony and propaganda broadcasts. Keeping those voices straight requires attention. The love story includes euphemistically described sex between adults, while torture, sexual assault and suicide are serious parts of the wider narrative.
How it reads
- Writing style
- Experimental · Journalistic · Lyrical · Witty
- Tone
- Dark · Satirical · Tense · Unsettling
- Structure
- Braided · Fragmented
- Driven by
- Character · Ideas · Plot
- Point of view
- Mixed viewpoints · Multiple viewpoints
- Setting
- North Korea
Reading complexity
- Writing
- 3 / 5
- Ideas
- 4 / 5
- Structure
- 4 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 2 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Themes
- Identity
- Knowledge and truth
- Oppression
- Politics and ideology
- Power
- Survival
Content notes
- Violence
- Strong
- Sexual content
- Strong
- Swearing
- Strong
- Substance use
- Mild
- Abuse
- Strong
- Self-harm or suicide
- Strong
Standing and awards
Highly regarded
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2013
- National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, 2012
- Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction longlist, 2013
- Pulitzer Prize — Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2013
Questions readers ask
Which edition is shown here?
Random House Trade Paperbacks · 2012 · Paperback. ISBN 9780812982626.
How long does it take to read The Orphan Master's Son?
About 9 hours 30 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 480-page Random House Trade Paperbacks edition. Dense books can take longer.
About the author
Adam Johnson
Adam Johnson is an American novelist and short-story writer whose fiction concentrates on isolated people living under coercive systems. His characters often inhabit society’s margins, where identity can become a matter of survival. He combines dark comedy and satire with lyrical passages, journalistic detail, and shifts in narrative form. In The Orphan Master’s Son, an orphan named Pak Jun Do navigates the demands of the North Korean state while trying to preserve a private sense of self. The novel moves among close third-person narration, propaganda broadcasts, and interrogation testimony, making official language part of the machinery that shapes his life.
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Edition and details
- Publisher
- Random House Trade Paperbacks
- Publication year
- 2012
- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 480
- ISBN
- 9780812982626
- Edition language
- English
- Original language
- English
- First published
- 2012
- Genres and form
- Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Mystery & Thriller · Political Fiction · Literary fiction · Espionage thriller · Psychological fiction · Social novel · Dark comedy · Satire
- Editions
- 13
- Languages
- 3 (German, English, Unspecified)