Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
by Barbara Demik
Spiegel & Grau, 2010, 316 p. Nonfiction
This is a fascinating collection of stories about people who defected from North Korea. Many of the stories focus on the time of the great famine in the 1990's. Although official sources were telling the populous how wonderful their lives were, food was scarce, and regular citizens watched their loved ones wither and die.  It is sobering to hear how carefully people had to avoid saying or doing anything that would bring them under suspicion of government officials.  Each of the featured people slowly came to distrust the indoctrination they had received their whole lives about their "Beloved Leader" and realize that life really would be better outside of their homeland.  The book reads like a novel and is utterly engaging.  Though the subject is somber, it is also inspirational to hear how the human spirit can persevere and eventually overcome.