the novel's reception has been highly favorable. michiko kakutani, writing in "the new york times", has called it "a daring and remarkable novel, a novel that not only opens a frightening window on the mysterious kingdom of north korea, but one that also excavates the very meaning of love and sacrifice." writing in the "wall street journal", sam sacks said “stylistic panache, technical daring, moral weight and an uncanny sense of the current moment—combine in adam johnson's 'the orphan master's son', the single best work of fiction published in 2012.” m. francis wolff, in her review for "the new inquiry", called the book "one of those rare works of high ambition that follow through on all of its promises... it examines both the orwellian horrors of life in the dprk and the voyeurism of western media." david ignatius’ review in the "washington post" called the novel “an audacious act of imagination.” in the "new york times", christopher r. beha called it “an ingeniously plotted adventure that feels much shorter than its roughly 450 pages and offers the reader a tremendous amount of fun,” but complained that the “[propaganda] interludes are fine exercises in dark wit, but in the context of a novel that seeks to portray a country’s suffering, they’re unconvincing.” on 15 april 2013, the novel won the pulitzer prize for fiction.