Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick

An eye-opening account of life inside North Korea--a closed world of increasing global importance--hailed as a tour de force of meticulous reporting (The New York Review of Books)

NATIONAL BOK AWARD FINALIST - NATIONAL BOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST

In this landmark addition to the literature of totalitarianism, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick follows the lives of six North Korean citizens over fifteen years--a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il (the father of Kim Jong-un), and a devastating famine that killed one-fifth of the population.

Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive regime today--an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, where displays of affection are punished, informants are rewarded, and an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life. She takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors, and through meticulous and sensitive reporting we see her subjects fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we witness their profound, life-altering disillusionment with the government and their realization that, rather than providing them with lives of abundance, their country has betrayed them.

Praise for Nothing to Envy

Provocative . . . offers extensive evidence of the author's deep knowledge of this country while keeping its sights firmly on individual stories and human details.--The New York Times

Deeply moving . . . The personal stories are related with novelistic detail.--The Wall Street Journal

A tour de force of meticulous reporting.--The New York Review of Books

Excellent . . . humanizes a downtrodden, long-suffering people whose individual lives, hopes and dreams are so little known abroad.--San Francisco Chronicle

The narrow boundaries of our knowledge have expanded radically with the publication of Nothing to Envy. . . . Elegantly structured and written, it] is a groundbreaking work of literary nonfiction.--John Delury, Slate

At times a page-turner, at others an intimate study in totalitarian psychology.--The Philadelphia Inquirer

Barbara Demick is the author of Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award and the winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize in the U.K., and Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood. Her books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. Demick is a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times and a contributor to The New Yorker, and was recently a press fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780385523905
ISBN 10	0385523904
Title	Nothing to Envy
Author	Barbara Demick
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	2009-12-29
Number of pages	336
Prizes	Winner of ALA Notable Books (Nonfiction) 2011, Winner of Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2010, Commended for National Book Awards (Nonfiction) 2010, Commended for National Book Critics Circle Award (Nonfiction) 2010
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.