Alternating timelines tell the story of Myung-gi as a nine-year-old living with his parents and sister in the Korean north following the Soviet occupation, and as a 16-year-old soldier for the Republic of Korea Army (ROKA) in 1952, trapped in a collapsed tunnel. Seven years earlier, Myung-gi, an avid reader, treasures the forbidden novels Ahpa secretly brings home for him. As life under Communist rule becomes more oppressive and the Korean War begins, Ahpa secretly plans their family’s escape to the south. On a day when Myung- gi was supposed to be keeping watch but is distracted by a book, Ahpa is taken by North Korean soldiers. Myung-gi, his sister, and his mother make the treacherous journey south, hoping Ahpa escaped and they can reunite with him in Busan, but Ahpa never arrives. In the years that follow they live in a make-shift home, earning money for food any way they can. Myung-gi’s guilt over Ahpa’s capture fuels his decision to the join the army; in battle after only ten days of training, he ends up trapped in the dark tunnel along with an “enemy” soldier. Facing death, he accepts that he’s unlikely to ever be reunited with Ahpa. In an epilogue, an elderly Ahpa, still living in North Korea, receives a smuggled copy of Myung- gi’s memoir and learns that his son now lives in the United States. This companion novel to the earlier Brother’s Keeper was inspired by the author’s desire to recognize child soldiers of the Korean War. (Ages 10–14

Trapped in an enemy tunnel, a young refugee experiences the Korean War firsthand in this searing story of survival, loss, and hope, a companion to the Freeman Award-winning novel Brother’s Keeper.

Myung-gi knows war is coming: War between North and South Korea. Life in communist North Korea has become more and more unbearable—there is no freedom of speech, movement, association, or thought—and his parents have been carefully planning the family’s escape.

But when his father is abducted by the secret police, all those plans fall apart. How can Myung-gi leave North Korea without his dad? Especially when he believes that the abduction was his fault?

Set during a cataclysmic war which shaped the world we know today, this is the story of one boy’s coming-of-age during a time when inhumanity, lawlessness, and terror reigned supreme. Myung-gi, his mother, and his twelve-year-old sister Yoomee do everything they can to protect one another. But gentle, quiet, bookish Myung-gi has plans to find his father at any cost—even if it means joining the army and being sent to the front lines, where his deepest fears await him.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
A Book Riot Best New Book of 2023
"An absolute must-read."—Booklist, starred review
"Vivid, powerful."—School Library Journal
"Moving."—Publishers Weekly
"Searing. . . . Beautifully written."—Book Riot