A review by lauraecase
A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa

4.0

I know very little details about life in North Korea, just a general sense that it’s pretty bad there. I had heard vaguely about the famine in the mid-90s but again, very few details. This book was a punch in the gut, learning about the reality. It’s not bad. It’s evil.

I did some research after this book and learned roughly 600k to a million people starved to death (exact numbers not known). This book details the starving and the conditions and the dead bodies in the streets and the dying babies and the cruelty of the government.

What I’m left with is a whole mess of feelings on sanctions, humanitarian aid, and refugees.