imijen 's review for:

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

5.0

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As the title indicates, this is a personal and very human account of ordinary lives in North Korea. Nothing to Envy is clear, concise and written in such an engaging and riveting manner that it nearly impossible to stop reading at times. Based on the author's extensive interviews with six defectors, after they've made it to South Korea, Nothing to Envy builds a picture of what life is really like in a country that has cut itself off from the rest of the world. This is supplemented with a brief history of North Korea and its politics, but the focus is always on the individuals themselves, the people who suffer the consequences in their everyday lives. Above all, I think Demick was very respectful of the people she was writing about when it came to describing how they survived the famine and how they made their escape. Highly recommended.