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Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Spiegel and Grau
January 2010
On Sale: December 29, 2009
366 pages
ISBN: 0385523904
EAN: 9780385523905
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Political
A remarkable view into North Korea, as seen through the
lives of six ordinary citizens
Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over
fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-
sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-
il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed
one-fifth of the population. Taking us into a landscape most of us have never before
seen, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick brings to
life what it means to be living under the most repressive
totalitarian regime today—an Orwellian world that is by
choice not connected to the Internet, in which radio and
television dials are welded to the one government station,
and where displays of affection are punished; a police
state where informants are rewarded and where an offhand
remark can send a person to the gulag for life. Demick takes us deep inside the country, beyond the
reach of government censors. Through meticulous and
sensitive reporting, we see her six subjects—average North
Korean citizens—fall in love, raise families, nurture
ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we
experience the moments when they realize that their
government has betrayed them. Nothing to Envy is a groundbreaking addition to the
literature of totalitarianism and an eye-opening look at a
closed world that is of increasing global importance.
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