diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/input/EscapedTextInputFormat.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/input/EscapedTextInputFormat.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..747c70d6af2d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/input/EscapedTextInputFormat.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,236 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.spark.input
+
+import java.io.{BufferedReader, IOException, InputStreamReader}
+
+import scala.collection.mutable.ArrayBuffer
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.{FileSystem, Path}
+import org.apache.hadoop.io.compress.CompressionCodecFactory
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.{InputSplit, RecordReader, TaskAttemptContext}
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.lib.input.{FileInputFormat, FileSplit}
+
+/**
+ * Input format for text records saved with in-record delimiter and newline characters escaped.
+ *
+ * For example, a record containing two fields: `"a\n"` and `"|b\\"` saved with delimiter `|`
+ * should be the following:
+ * {{{
+ * a\\\n|\\|b\\\\\n
+ * }}},
+ * where the in-record `|`, `\n`, and `\\` characters are escaped by `\\`.
+ * Users can configure the delimiter via [[EscapedTextInputFormat$#KEY_DELIMITER]].
+ * Its default value [[EscapedTextInputFormat$#DEFAULT_DELIMITER]] is set to match Redshift's UNLOAD
+ * with the ESCAPE option:
+ * {{{
+ *   UNLOAD ('select_statement')
+ *   TO 's3://object_path_prefix'
+ *   ESCAPE
+ * }}}
+ *
+ * @see org.apache.spark.SparkContext#newAPIHadoopFile
+ */
+class EscapedTextInputFormat extends FileInputFormat[Long, Array[String]] {
+
+  override def createRecordReader(
+      split: InputSplit,
+      context: TaskAttemptContext): RecordReader[Long, Array[String]] = {
+    new EscapedTextRecordReader
+  }
+}
+
+object EscapedTextInputFormat {
+
+  /** configuration key for delimiter */
+  val KEY_DELIMITER = "spark.input.escapedText.delimiter"
+  /** default delimiter */
+  val DEFAULT_DELIMITER = '|'
+
+  /** Gets the delimiter char from conf or the default. */
+  private[input] def getDelimiterOrDefault(conf: Configuration): Char = {
+    val c = conf.get(KEY_DELIMITER, DEFAULT_DELIMITER.toString)
+    if (c.length != 1) {
+      throw new IllegalArgumentException(s"Expect delimiter be a single character but got '$c'.")
+    } else {
+      c.charAt(0)
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+private[input] class EscapedTextRecordReader extends RecordReader[Long, Array[String]] {
+
+  private var reader: BufferedReader = _
+
+  private var key: Long = _
+  private var value: Array[String] = _
+
+  private var start: Long = _
+  private var end: Long = _
+  private var cur: Long = _
+
+  private var delimiter: Char = _
+  @inline private[this] final val escapeChar = '\\'
+  @inline private[this] final val newline = '\n'
+
+  @inline private[this] final val defaultBufferSize = 64 * 1024
+
+  override def initialize(inputSplit: InputSplit, context: TaskAttemptContext): Unit = {
+    val split = inputSplit.asInstanceOf[FileSplit]
+    val file = split.getPath
+    val conf = context.getConfiguration
+    delimiter = EscapedTextInputFormat.getDelimiterOrDefault(conf)
+    require(delimiter != escapeChar,
+      s"The delimiter and the escape char cannot be the same but found $delimiter.")
+    require(delimiter != newline, "The delimiter cannot be the newline character.")
+    val compressionCodecs = new CompressionCodecFactory(conf)
+    val codec = compressionCodecs.getCodec(file)
+    if (codec != null) {
+      throw new IOException(s"Do not support compressed files but found $file.")
+    }
+    val fs = file.getFileSystem(conf)
+    val size = fs.getFileStatus(file).getLen
+    start = findNext(fs, file, size, split.getStart)
+    end = findNext(fs, file, size, split.getStart + split.getLength)
+    cur = start
+    val in = fs.open(file)
+    if (cur > 0L) {
+      in.seek(cur - 1L)
+      in.read()
+    }
+    reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in), defaultBufferSize)
+  }
+
+  override def getProgress: Float = {
+    if (start >= end) {
+      1.0f
+    } else {
+      math.min((cur - start).toFloat / (end - start), 1.0f)
+    }
+  }
+
+  override def nextKeyValue(): Boolean = {
+    if (cur < end) {
+      key = cur
+      value = nextValue()
+      true
+    } else {
+      false
+    }
+  }
+
+  override def getCurrentValue: Array[String] = value
+
+  override def getCurrentKey: Long = key
+
+  override def close(): Unit = {
+    if (reader != null) {
+      reader.close()
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Finds the start of the next record.
+   * Because we don't know whether the first char is escaped or not, we need to first find a
+   * position that is not escaped.
+   * @return the start position of the next record
+   */
+  private def findNext(fs: FileSystem, file: Path, size: Long, offset: Long): Long = {
+    if (offset == 0L) return 0L
+    if (offset >= size) return size
+    var pos = offset
+    val in = fs.open(file)
+    in.seek(pos)
+    val br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in), defaultBufferSize)
+    var escaped = true
+    var eof = false
+    while (escaped && !eof) {
+      val v = br.read()
+      if (v < 0) {
+        eof = true
+      } else {
+        pos += 1
+        if (v != escapeChar) {
+          escaped = false
+        }
+      }
+    }
+    var newline = false
+    while ((escaped || !newline) && !eof) {
+      val v = br.read()
+      if (v < 0) {
+        eof = true
+      } else {
+        pos += 1
+        if (v == escapeChar) {
+          escaped = true
+        } else {
+          if (!escaped) {
+            newline = v == '\n'
+          } else {
+            escaped = false
+          }
+        }
+      }
+    }
+    in.close()
+    pos
+  }
+
+  private def nextValue(): Array[String] = {
+    var escaped = false
+    val fields = ArrayBuffer.empty[String]
+    var endOfRecord = false
+    var eof = false
+    while (!endOfRecord && !eof) {
+      var endOfField = false
+      val sb = new StringBuilder
+      while (!endOfField && !endOfRecord && !eof) {
+        val v = reader.read()
+        if (v < 0) {
+          eof = true
+        } else {
+          cur += 1
+          if (escaped) {
+            if (v != escapeChar && v != delimiter && v != newline) {
+              throw new IllegalStateException(s"Found ${v.asInstanceOf[Char]} after $escapeChar.")
+            }
+            sb.append(v.asInstanceOf[Char])
+            escaped = false
+          } else {
+            if (v == escapeChar) {
+              escaped = true
+            } else if (v == delimiter) {
+              endOfField = true
+            } else if (v == newline) {
+              endOfRecord = true
+            } else {
+              sb.append(v.asInstanceOf[Char])
+            }
+          }
+        }
+      }
+      fields.append(sb.toString())
+    }
+    if (escaped) {
+      throw new IllegalStateException(s"Found hanging escape char.")
+    }
+    fields.toArray
+  }
+}
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/input/EscapedTextInputFormatSuite.scala b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/input/EscapedTextInputFormatSuite.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..daa64e2403f84
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/input/EscapedTextInputFormatSuite.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.spark.input
+
+import java.io.{DataOutputStream, File, FileOutputStream}
+
+import scala.language.implicitConversions
+
+import com.google.common.io.Files
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration
+import org.scalatest.FunSuite
+
+import org.apache.spark.{SparkContext, LocalSparkContext, Logging}
+import org.apache.spark.SparkContext._
+import org.apache.spark.input.EscapedTextInputFormat._
+import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
+
+class EscapedTextInputFormatSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext with Logging {
+
+  import EscapedTextInputFormatSuite._
+
+  private def writeToFile(contents: String, file: File) = {
+    val bytes = contents.getBytes
+    val out = new DataOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(file))
+    out.write(bytes, 0, bytes.length)
+    out.close()
+  }
+
+  private def escape(records: Set[Seq[String]], delimiter: Char): String = {
+    require(delimiter != '\\' && delimiter != '\n')
+    records.map { r =>
+      r.map { f =>
+        f.replace("\\", "\\\\")
+          .replace("\n", "\\\n")
+          .replace(delimiter, "\\" + delimiter)
+      }.mkString(delimiter)
+    }.mkString("", "\n", "\n")
+  }
+
+  private final val KEY_BLOCK_SIZE = "fs.local.block.size"
+
+  private final val TAB = '\t'
+
+  private val records = Set(
+    Seq("a\n", DEFAULT_DELIMITER + "b\\"),
+    Seq("c", TAB + "d"),
+    Seq("\ne", "\\\\f"))
+
+  private def withTempDir(func: File => Unit): Unit = {
+    val dir = Files.createTempDir()
+    dir.deleteOnExit()
+    logDebug(s"dir: $dir")
+    func(dir)
+    Utils.deleteRecursively(dir)
+  }
+
+  test("default delimiter") {
+    sc = new SparkContext("local", "test default delimiter")
+    withTempDir { dir =>
+      val escaped = escape(records, DEFAULT_DELIMITER)
+      writeToFile(escaped, new File(dir, "part-00000"))
+
+      val conf = new Configuration
+      conf.setLong(KEY_BLOCK_SIZE, 4)
+
+      val rdd = sc.newAPIHadoopFile(dir.toString, classOf[EscapedTextInputFormat],
+        classOf[Long], classOf[Array[String]], conf)
+      assert(rdd.partitions.size > records.size) // so there exist at least one empty partition
+
+      val actual = rdd.values.map(_.toSeq).collect()
+      assert(actual.size === records.size)
+      assert(actual.toSet === records)
+    }
+  }
+
+  test("customized delimiter") {
+    sc = new SparkContext("local", "test customized delimiter")
+    withTempDir { dir =>
+      val escaped = escape(records, TAB)
+      writeToFile(escaped, new File(dir, "part-00000"))
+
+      val conf = new Configuration
+      conf.setLong(KEY_BLOCK_SIZE, 4)
+      conf.set(KEY_DELIMITER, TAB)
+
+      val rdd = sc.newAPIHadoopFile(dir.toString, classOf[EscapedTextInputFormat],
+        classOf[Long], classOf[Array[String]], conf)
+      assert(rdd.partitions.size > records.size) // so there exist at least one empty partitions
+
+      val actual = rdd.values.map(_.toSeq).collect()
+      assert(actual.size === records.size)
+      assert(actual.toSet === records)
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+object EscapedTextInputFormatSuite {
+
+  implicit def charToString(c: Char): String = c.toString
+}