n_nazir 's review for:

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

4.0

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With Kim Jong-Il the punchline to many a joke, it's been easy to forget (or perhaps never really have acknowledged) that under him are millions of people who live in poverty, fear and oppression. The book is excellent, it presents a human face to one of the 'axis of evil' countries and gives a startling insight into what life in a real life '1984' would be like. It also makes you realise just how brave and driven the defectors are; to question the indoctrination and then to risk everything to make it out of there alive.