Blaine Harden, former reporter for The New York Times and The New York Times Magazine, will read and discuss his latest book, “The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: A True Story about the Birth of Tyranny in North Korea,” at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 14, at the Vashon Bookshop.

Harden also served as the bureau chief for The Washington Post in Nairobi, Warsaw, New York, Seattle and Tokyo. Additionally, he is the best-selling author of the nonfiction titles “Africa: Dispatches from a Fragile Continent,” “A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia” and “Escape from Camp 14.”

Harden, who lives in Seattle, tells the story of Kim Il Sung’s rise to power and the young North Korean elite pilot who dared defy the leader when he flew a stolen MiG-15 from North to South Korea in 1953. The theft, just weeks after the Korean War ended, surprised the Western world and helped incite Sung’s bloody vengeance.

Using never-before-released U.S. government intelligence files, Harden tells a true escape-adventure story and gives insights into the world’s longest-lasting totalitarian state