North Korea has been somewhat fascinating to me for a while, if only because it's so ludicrous that such a place can exist in today's world. This book is a collection of stories from various North Korean defectors from different walks of life gathered from interviews done by the author. In case there is any doubt, this book is very depressing.
It's hard to believe people live this way and accept it, being so brainwashed and told that the rest of the world is the same way. Many people do, even when their families starve to death or are shot because someone told the Party they were talking badly about them. Some also defect, risking life and limb to get to China or South Korea. Those that do are riddled with survivor's guilt for their families that have either died or were left behind.
I'm not going to go into any more detail about the stories in this book. I'm just going to say that even if only some of the stories are true, then North Korea is quite possibly the worst possible place in the world to live. Ever.
The author also writes for the Los Angeles Times. This book was nominated for the National Book Award and won the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction in 2010. If there's one good thing I can say about the stories in this book, they make you very grateful to live in the civilized world and to have the life you have.
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