Brother One Cell

Cullen Thomas was just like the thousands of other American kids who travel abroad after college. He was hungry for meaning and excitement beyond a nine-to-five routine, so he set off for Seoul, South Korea, to teach English and look for adventure. What he got was a three-and-a- half-year drug-crime sentence in South Korea's prisons, where the physical toll of life in a cell was coupled with the mental anguish of maintaining sanity in a world that couldn't have been more foreign. This is Thomas's unvarnished account of his eye-opening, ultimately life-affirming experience. Brother One Cell is part cautionary tale, part prison memoir, and part insightful travelogue that will appeal to a wide readership, from concerned parents to armchair adventurers."Brother One Cell is Mr. Thomas's affecting account of his prison experience. It's an offbeat coming of age story, the tale of a wide-eyed, innocent, middle-class American thrust into a world of deprivation and daily trials that speed his passage into adulthood and a deeper understanding of himself and the fallen creatures around him . . . told simply, and with extraordinary good humor...[T]he detail is fascinating."
-William Grimes, The New York Times

"Compelling."
-Chicago Tribune

"Scary, funny, [and] honest as hell . . . This is memoir at its highest level."
-Ray LeMoine, co-author of Babylon by Bus

"In reflective, often highlighter-worthy prose . . . Thomas lyrically describes his Zenlike effort to stay sane through shoe-factory work and prison basketball."
-Outside

"His account of that journey [to higher understanding] is gripping."
-Booklist (Starred Review)