Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
North Korea is Orwell's 1984 made reality: it is the only country in the world not connected to the internet; Gone with the Wind is a dangerous, banned book; during political rallies, spies study your expression to check your sincerity. After the death of the country's great leader Kim Il Sung in...
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North Korea is Orwell's 1984 made reality: it is the only country in the world not connected to the internet; Gone with the Wind is a dangerous, banned book; during political rallies, spies study your expression to check your sincerity. After the death of the country's great leader Kim Il Sung in 1994, famine descended, and Nothing to Envy - winner of the 2010 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction - weaves together the stories of adversity and resilience of six residents of Chongin, North Korea's third-largest city. From extensive interviews and with tenacious investigative work, Barbara Demick has recreated the concerns, culture and lifestyles of North Korean citizens in a gripping narrative, and vividly reconstructed the inner workings of this extraordinary and secretive country.
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Format: kindle
ASIN: B003V4ASV8
Publish date: July 8th 2010
Publisher: Granta Books
Pages no: 340
Edition language: English
W Korei Północnej dzieci od najmłodszych lat uczą się pieśni pochwalnej, w której - między innymi - padają słowa: "Światu nie mamy czego zazdrościć". Myślę, że zarówno każdy komu udało się uciec z Korei Północnej, jak i każdy z nas z łatwością widzi jak wiele w owym haśle jest propagandy. Dobrze, ż...
Excellent book, but engenders a feeling of great sadness that people are forced to live a life of constant fear, at the mercy of a brutal regime.
DNF at 55%It is a good book if you want to have an insight into a sick political system. That's unique in many ways. It's well written and the author knows the topic from the insider view. I've never been a non-fiction reader, and the fact that I came so far speaks actually for the book. My mistake ...
The hardships of living in a once modern country that no longer has enough reliable electricity to cool its citizen’s home refrigerators or run the now defunct factories where they used to work are more than I could have imagined and heart-rending, but there is at least one advantage. When the sun s...
This was a harrowing read; how could it not be, being about North Korea? But at the same time it was excellent and a book that everyone should read, if they have the chance. When I started it I wasn’t sure what to expect, I mean I’m a bit of a character junkie and I didn’t know how well the people i...
10 years ago
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