Brother One Cell: An American Coming of Age in South Korea's Prisons
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Brother One Cell: An American Coming of Age in South Korea's Prisons Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Cullen Thomas (Author), Dan Woren (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 50 ratings
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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.
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  1. Listening Length
    11 hours and 46 minutes
  2. Author
    Cullen Thomas
  3. Narrator
    Dan Woren
  4. Audible release date
    March 15, 2007
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B000OIOQ8U
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 11 hours and 46 minutes
Author Cullen Thomas
Narrator Dan Woren
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date March 15, 2007
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B000OIOQ8U
Best Sellers Rank #340,375 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#126 in Penology (Audible Books & Originals)
#445 in Biographies of Journalists, Editors & Publishers
#3,341 in Journalist Biographies

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
50 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Ayun Halliday
5.0 out of 5 stars Finding Absolution in the Least Likely Place
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2008
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First things first. If your name is listed in red ink, and almost everybody else's is in black, it does not mean that you've won a prize. Do not try to collect your package from the window. Cullen did and he wound up serving 3 and a half years in a series of Korean Houses of D.

Ever since I read a Giant Robot article about Asian and Asian-American inmates stockpiling ramen, ketchup packets, soy sauce packets and other odds and ends to create ersatz versions of the dishes they craved, I've been fascinated with prisoner resourcefulness. In this respect Brother One Cell is a very satisfying travelogue. Cullen is a big, unseasoned foreigner, not yet fluent, completely inexperienced as a criminal, who must learn to survive as a prisoner - how to talk to people, how to make sure he gets his mail, how to deal with mosquitos, extreme cold and fluorescent lights that stay on 24 hours a day...

Even more satisfying is the transformative mental and phillosophical journey upon which the author embarks, at first unconsciously and then with growing determination. The appreciation and grace at which he eventually arrives is a good reminder for those of us who've been spoiled by taken-for-granted freedom, cooshy living conditions and Get Out Of Jail Free cards we didn't necessarily deserve.
5 people found this helpful
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Tom A. Hall
5.0 out of 5 stars This story would make an excellent film
Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2020
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This "there but for the grace of God" memoir is also a travelogue through the psyche of a young American's physical, and psychological evolution within the confines of the South Korean prison system. In the journey the reader learns much about Korean culture, history, and the odd mix of characters who populate Korea's prisons. The author's scenes are so well depicted, the characters so well described, and their internal lives so artfully laid bare, that I came away from the story feeling as if I had just watched a feature length motion picture. In fact, if Brother One Cell were to be adapted to film it would be widely received, both here in the United States as well as in South Korea.

Moreover, while we continue to self-isolate during the pandemic, Brother One Cell is both instructive on how to survive in isolation while also being a highly engrossing coming of age tale. Cullen Thomas is an author to watch.
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Donna L. Kloppenburg
5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT READ , EYE OPENER, LIVE AND LEARN, BOYCOTT ASIA AND THEIR PRISON SYTEMS
Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2010
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Well worth the read. Its amazing how cruel and evil these overseas prisons can be. Cullen, I am so glad you made it home. I also watched the Locked up Abroad episode. If I had known you were there, I would have written to you to help you keep your spirits up and you are so lucky you have gotten to come home. I recommend this read to find out what is going on overseas in those prisons and I urge people to advocate for people who make mistakes and who are then treated so badly. Hash, big deal, here its a misdemeanor and no jail time unless high quantiies. Its grown and used over there so they can put ppl in prisons like Cullen. Its all a setup game for foreigners so they can extraxt money from us. Anytime a foreigner is caught and sent to an Asian prison they smile ear to ear because they know thier country will benefit from it somehow some way.

Please read so we can advocate for better treatment on crimes committed overseas for our fellow americans. And Cullen stay in the US.
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Karol Nielsen
5.0 out of 5 stars Graceful, Poetic Thriller
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2011
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Cullen Thomas's memoir, Brother One Cell, is a thriller about an American college graduate, nicknamed the Jolly Marauder, who grew up on Long Island dreaming about pirates, adventure, and becoming a storyteller someday. Armed with an English major and big plans, Cullen took a job teaching English to school children in South Korea, quickly realizing that it was an insufferable grind. So he came up with a new plan: smuggling hashish into the country from Malaysia to finance a proper tour of the world. A friend had done it successfully, but Cullen got caught while collecting his contraband in the post office and was sent to prison for three and a half years. I've always been drawn to prison and war memoirs because they are like life only intensified, so you read looking for lessons about survival. Brother One Cell could be dark, but it is full of humor, poetry, and philosophy. From his cell window, Cullen could see a tree in the courtyard where he played basketball with murderers, thieves, drug dealers, and human traffickers. The tree kept getting cut down and down and down, but never lost its grace and dignity.
2 people found this helpful
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Troy G
3.0 out of 5 stars Good Book
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2011
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This book is a good read. Its a little bit different from your usual 'caucasion-gets-busted-for-drugs-in-asia-and-spends-time-in-hellhole-prison' book as the prison in South Korea is by no means as extreme as the ones you read about in Thailand etc.

I kept turning the pages pretty easily with this book but the one gripe I have is that the author feels a need to constantly describe EVERYTHING in such intricate detail. For example he will walk into a room and before before you find out what is about to happen he will spend 3 pages detailing every little thing in that room: "and the smell is like this, and the sound is like that, and there was this on the floor which reminded me of this when I was a kid back home..." etc (that is not a real phrase from the book, just an example of course). I know that some people like this kind of stuff but it happens every page and I believe it gets in the way of the actual book itself. If some of that waffle was cut back this book could have been 4 stars.

Still worth a read though, especially if you like waffles.
6 people found this helpful
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Edith
5.0 out of 5 stars Reflective, Uplifting and Hopeful
Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2007
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The author of the Publisher's Weekly review seemingly didn't read the book in its entirety. In my opinion there is little except plot in that review that correctly addresses the book that I read. The last statement that Thomas was "unable or unwilling to be humbled by the experience" is amazingly off the mark.

The book was so good I didn't want it to end - I tried to make the book last longer, and when it was done I wanted more. It's not "just another prison book", if there is such a category, but it's so reflective and uplifting and hopeful, not just for the incarcerated, but also for anyone who has faced persistent difficulties. Thomas experienced an initiation that he endured with grace. Wonderful!
6 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Pablova
3.0 out of 5 stars Good understanding of Korea culture but read better
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2011
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Having lived in Seoul, Korea as an English teacher myself, the writer has a great understanding of Korean culture and explains the way of life and way things are extremely well. They are NOT cultural sterop-types as one reviewer here has wrongly stated) but just the facts on how Korean life revolves and the extreme difference from Western culture. The author portrays Korean very honestly and in neither a positive or negative way.

The book itself is average. Quite simply - there are better prison diaries and the very best I have read is 'Prison Diaries' by Jefrrey Archer which were amazing. This book is not of the same standard but is still a good read and worth buying.

The only issue I have is that the author seems to show no remorse at all for what he did. It is thus hard to like the author.
One person found this helpful
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Skye
1.0 out of 5 stars intensely boring
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 25, 2009
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As an avid reader who will always finish a book no matter what, this is the one and only book that have ever I failed to finish.

For a story about a prison experience it is bland, boring and curiously disjointed. It has got to be the most poor book of this genre that I have read.

The author shows nothing that even faintly causes any sympathy and despite trying my hardest to persivere with the book it became apparent that it was going to be relegated to the far corner of the bookcase.

Sad really as this could have been a very good insight into how prison in Korea was
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