Nothing To Envy: Real Lives In North Korea - Softcover

Demick, Barbara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 184708141X ISBN 13: 9781847081414

Publisher: Granta Books, 2010

WINNER OF THE BBC SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2010

A spectacularly revealing and harrowing portrait of ordinary lives in the world's least ordinary country, North Korea

Updated in 2014 with a new epilogue. 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: people stumbled over dead bodies in the street and ate tree bark to survive. Nothing to Envy 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.

Product Description:

Updated in 2014 with a new epilogue. 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: people stumbled over dead bodies in the street and ate tree bark to survive., Nothing to Envy 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.

Review:

'These stories, very effectively told here in all their human detail, are immensely touching' --Daily Mail

'This remarkable book confirms our fears but does much more ... Barbara Demick is a reporter of impressive tenacity and thoroughness' --The Times

`This compelling book is a worthy winner of the BBC Samuel Johnson prize' --Guardian

`I've never read anything quite like it ... Demick has unearthed some heartbreaking human stories' --Evening Standard

'This book reads with the emotional intensity of fiction, yet it rigorously trails the realities of ordinary people'
--Independent

'Her prize-winning book - updated after the succession to power of the young dictator, Kim Jong-Un - tells the harrowing stories of six people and their sufferings in Chongjin. A must read' --Paperback review, Daily Mail

• Publisher: Granta Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 184708141X
• ISBN 13: 9781847081414
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 324