Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick (2009, Hardcover)

Synopsis
Los Angeles Times reporter Barbara Demick uses the firsthand experiences of six North Korean defectors to reveal the starvation, corruption and poverty which mark daily life under the repressive Communist regime of Kim Jong-il. Demick has spent the last seven years locating and interviewing former citizens of North Korea who have risked their lives to come to South Korea or China, and she mixes their stories with her own determined research to unveil a grim portrait of life without electricity, often without food, and without any form of freedom. Demick provides a detailed analysis of the horrific famine which killed millions of North Koreans during the 1990s, and an insightful 20th-century history of both Koreas, which have developed in completely opposite directions since the nation was divided along the 38th parallel following World War II.

Key Details
Author:	Barbara Demick
Language:	English
Publisher:	Spiegel & Grau
Format:	Hardcover
ISBN-10:	0385523904
ISBN-13:	9780385523905

Size
Length:	314 pages
Thickness:	1.2 in
Weight:	20.8 oz

Publisher's Note
An analysis of North Korea throughout the past 15 years as reflected by the lives of six everyday citizens traces their struggles for survival under totalitarian governance, including coverage of the death of Kim Il Sung, the rise of Kim Jong Il and the famine that has killed countless people.

Follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years, a chaotic period that saw the rise to power of Kim Jong Il and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population, bringing to life what it means to live under the most repressive totalitarian regime today.

Industry Reviews
"[A] lovely work of narrative nonfiction....[NOTHING TO ENVY] offers extensive evidence of the author's deep knowledge of this country while keeping its sights firmly on individual stories and human details....Ms. Demick writes especially well about the difficult lives of those who do manage to defect."
(01/26/2010)

"NOTHING TO ENVY sat on my shelf for several weeks before I cracked it. I was hesitant to commit to what I was certain would be an unrelentingly bleak narrative....But the book is much more than that, at times a page-turner, at others an intimate study in totalitarian psychology. Demick...takes us inside the minds of her subjects, rendering them as complex, often compelling characters - not the brainwashed parodies we see marching in unison in TV reports."
(01/03/2010)

"NOTHING TO ENVY must do what journalism hasn't been required to do for nearly a century: use words to create pictures of scenes that cannot be captured by a camera. With an eloquence seldom found in newspaper journalists, Demick has risen to the occasion -- all the more remarkable when you consider that she hasn't seen these sights herself. She has a novelist's knack for eliciting the telling detail..."
(01/03/2010)

"A fascinating and deeply personal look at the lives of six defectors from...the Republic of North Korea....As Demick weaves their stories together with the hidden history of the country's descent into chaos, she skillfully recreates these captivating and moving personal journeys." (starred review)
(09/28/2009)

"Ms. Demick has written a deeply moving book. The personal stories are related with novelistic detail....NOTHING TO ENVY depicts a society in chaos, where people have lost confidence in their government but don't yet have the will or the tools to rebel."
(01/28/2010)