There are lots of stories about concentration camps, perhaps the most famous of which is
Night by
Elie Wiesel. In
Night, the narrator sacrifices his moral principles in order to survive in a Nazi death camp, though he remembers his family with love.
Shin’s story of survival is very different—his
mother hit him and his
father ignored him, and neither showed him any real affection. He also has no memories of life outside Camp 14—he was born there, and learned the camp’s values before learning anything else.