Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea

Chapter 1 opens with a haunting photograph: a night satellite photo contrasting North and South Korea. Much as we first-worlders bemoan light pollution, the alternative is so horrifyingly worse.

This is a sobering book. There are other basket-case countries around – Haiti, Afghanistan, Somalia, ... – but there's just something special about North Korea. Demick transports us there, using the words and thoughts of escapees to paint a bleakness that none of us will ever really be able to understand.

I particularly enjoyed the chronological layout of the book: instead of short bios of each character, we move with them over time, through bad times and worse ones. That was a good decision: it really helps the reader develop a sense for conditions in the country.