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Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Barbara Demick (Goodreads Author)

4.42 · Rating details · 66,627 ratings · 7,477 reviews

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 ...more

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Hardcover, 316 pages

Published December 29th 2009 by Spiegel & Grau

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Jul 01, 2017 Emily May rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017, nonfiction

They don’t stop to think that in the middle of this black hole, in this bleak, dark country where millions have died of starvation, there is also love.

A painfully human look at North Korea (mostly) through the eyes of defectors now living in South Korea or China.

Demick peels back the layers of propaganda, parades and leader worship to expose the people and lives underneath. If you're anything like me, you'll find it hard not to be fascinated by this exceptionally secretive country and wonder what everyday life can really be like living in one of the strictest regimes on earth.

Of course, even in the darkest places there are love stories, hopes, dreams and family dynamics. We see a young couple courting in secret over many years, a woman who loses everything during the devastating famine of the 1990s - a famine which killed anywhere between a few hundred thousand and several million people - and a man sent to a hard labor camp for petty crimes. Families of defectors, no matter how innocent, are rounded up and shipped off to camps that may as well be called death camps.

Its was extremely interesting to get a look inside this closed country, and perhaps even more interesting to see the outside world through the eyes of those who escaped. I can't even imagine what it must be like to cross a border and discover that the world is nothing like you always believed.

I recently really enjoyed the fictional Korean story in Pachinko, which begins before the country's division and during the Japanese colonization, so it was great to see the history that so intrigued me expanded upon here. For one thing, I had no idea that traditional dress for Korean women was a head-to-toe veil, not unlike the burka. There were lots of small facts like this that I found fascinating.

Nothing to Envy reminds us of something important. That underneath all the craziness that is this regime and its deified leader, there are more than 20 million people just trying to feed their families, live their lives, and not get killed for it.

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Mar 05, 2012 Will Byrnes rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction

One thread of this riveting National Book Award finalist is a love story. Mi-san is an attractive girl from a family that does not have the right stuff, history-wise, her father having fought for South Korea in the war. They are considered “impure” by the North Korean government and society as a whole. Her prospects are only so-so. Jun-sang is headed to university in Pyongyang to study science. His future includes a good job, a membership in the party and a life of relative privilege. One enchan ...more

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Dec 20, 2009 Shirley rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Shirley by: Sarah Bookbinder

Shelves: 2010, favorites, nonfiction, to-reread, wishlist, recently-read-faves, korea

An amazing, unforgettable book about North Korea. Barbara Demick explores the most closed-off society in the world through the stories of six "ordinary" North Koreans who defect to South Korea beginning in the late 1990s. Through their stories, Demick covers a bit of everything (the pathological weirdness that was/is Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-Il and the cult of worship - and fear of reprisal - that made people cry harder at the former's death than they ever had in their lives, the role of a total An amazing, unforgettable book about North Korea. Barbara Demick explores the most closed-off society in the world through the stories of six "ordinary" North Koreans who defect to South Korea beginning in the late 1990s. Through their stories, Demick covers a bit of everything (the pathological weirdness that was/is Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-Il and the cult of worship - and fear of reprisal - that made people cry harder at the former's death than they ever had in their lives, the role of a totalitarian government in the everyday lives of people, the deterioration of North Korea into blackouts/famine/starvation, South Korea's/China's reception of North Korean defectors) very skillfully without sensationalizing; the subject matter speaks for itself.

Here are both moments of beauty (the reminiscences of two of the profiled North Koreans about how the blackouts at night allowed them to chastely walk and talk outside their village for hours at a time) and, more frequently, moments of horror (families deliberately winnowing down their members, i.e., starving everyone else to spare the children, who as the only surviving members of their families then became homeless begging kotjebi - 꽃제비 - literally swallows). As a new mother, I could not imagine being in a position where I could not provide enough food for my young toddler - thinking about all the orphaned kotjebi made me have to put down the book, pause, and collect myself before I could proceed. Not the only such moment.

Demick also discusses the guilt and shame that many defectors have. One woman who left her children and ex-husband in North Korea mourns, "I sacrified my babies for myself." A mother who defects with one daughter is never able to forgive herself because, following their defections, her other two daughters who were still in North Korea were arrested and presumably sent to a labor camp. Another woman, now in South Korea with its plenties and excesses, is haunted by her husband's last words before he died during the famine, "Let's go to a good restaurant and order a nice bottle of wine."

I was especially moved by this book. It is completely heartbreaking in many places. I, already a sentimental reader (in case you, dear Goodreads readers, haven't already ascertained as much), tend to get even more sentimental when I read about Korea. Moreover, and more relevantly, my dad is from North Korea, and I can't help but wonder about the fates of relatives I don't even know about. This book should have great appeal beyond my myopically sentimental lens, fortunately, as it is extremely well-written and compulsively readable and deserves to be widely read and discussed.

...more

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Feb 07, 2010 Stuart rated it it was amazing

There are few books like this written today: concise, well-researched, plainly yet effectively written, and free of hyperbole. This book is a very personal account of six lives in the failed state of North Korea. The level of deprivation and humiliation these people endure is heartbreaking. The book reads more like an outstanding piece of social anthropology than it does cut and dried journalism. The author is to be commended for her ability to get inside both the hearts and minds of the people ...more

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May 18, 2019 Beata rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The ordinary people whose lives are presented in this incredible book lead no ordinary lives. They survive against all odds, despite the totalitarian system which aims at supressing everything that is called normal: normal working conditions, normal education, normal shops, normal family bonds etc. etc. So far I have watched only several short documentaries on North Korea, now I have read a book which is not fiction. Written ten years ago, it is a collection of accounts by those fortunate who ha ...more

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Aug 03, 2011 David rated it really liked it

In the aftermath of the Korean war my mother's brother left an enigmatic note on his pillow before stepping out for school. He never returned and the family lamented his apparent suicide.

A half century later a list of names is published in Koreas' national paper. Part of the warming relations between North and South Korea, it offered the chance for families separated by the border to connect. So far nearly 20 thousand Koreans have participated in face-to-face meetings. My uncle's name is there ...more

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Oct 03, 2010 Shivesh rated it it was amazing

Shelves: political

A physician, possessing numerous years of education and selfless service to her people, comes upon a isolated farm in a dark field at twilight. The doctor is starving, malnourished and ravenous. She seeks crumbs, maybe a scrap of corn to eat. Slowly, she makes her way into a barn, musty with the odor of hay and equipment. She has not seen more than a handful worth of white rice in years. Indeed, white rice is a rare luxury in the world she comes from.

Suddenly, she sees in the dark of the barn a A physician, possessing numerous years of education and selfless service to her people, comes upon a isolated farm in a dark field at twilight. The doctor is starving, malnourished and ravenous. She seeks crumbs, maybe a scrap of corn to eat. Slowly, she makes her way into a barn, musty with the odor of hay and equipment. She has not seen more than a handful worth of white rice in years. Indeed, white rice is a rare luxury in the world she comes from.

Suddenly, she sees in the dark of the barn a gleam of a beaten metal bowl with cold lumps of glistening meat, surrounded by heaps of bright white grains. Could it be rice? Dear God, is that fatty pork? How could this be possible? Why would all this rich food be just lying here, in the middle of the floor of a dirty cold barn?

Just then, she hears the dog.

As Barbara Demick icily observes at this moment in the book, "Dr. Kim now realized the truth: in China, dogs ate better than doctors did back in North Korea."

It is a moment of epiphany, and one of six realizations that separate six defectors' lives from their existence in North Korea from their subsequent lives in the free world. It is almost ridiculous to think of China as a truly open and free society, but the constant suppression and fear of the North Korean regime makes it so for the residents that flee to the border. An interesting observation from this book and its collection of defectors' stories is that it wasn't the lack of freedom, or the lack of money, or even the lack of status that propelled people to defect from this state, but the wholesale lack of food. Without food rations, there simply was not any reason for people to stay at their assigned posts or cities - they simply drifted away, or plucked the surrounding hillsides clean of any grass or edible root, or with their last bit of strength, dared the dangerous borders to relative freedom.

If you need something to refocus your appreciation for your life, no matter how flawed or unsatisfactory it may be right now: read this book. It will change the way you think about North Korea, and definitely the way you might look at your own problems. Your life isn't so bad after all, huh? ...more

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Nov 01, 2011 Stephanie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

This book was simultaneously a page-turner and hard as hell to read. I had trouble falling asleep last night because of it, and when I did I had some unsettling nightmares. This isn't a book I can read, write an "oh that's nice, that definitely added to my life" type of review and go about my day. This is some seriously skillful nonfiction. It calls to mind being fourteen and reading Wild Swans. There's a similar structure to both works; history of a country to get the big picture, and memoirs o This book was simultaneously a page-turner and hard as hell to read. I had trouble falling asleep last night because of it, and when I did I had some unsettling nightmares. This isn't a book I can read, write an "oh that's nice, that definitely added to my life" type of review and go about my day. This is some seriously skillful nonfiction. It calls to mind being fourteen and reading Wild Swans. There's a similar structure to both works; history of a country to get the big picture, and memoirs of individual experiences to personalize statistics and news bulletins. And, this is harder to quantify or describe, both books gave me a sick, horrified feeling, even as I felt like parts of my brain were lighting up with brand new information. Some of the best non-fiction makes a reader feel like they can connect seemingly disparate facts together, and history makes a little more sense, and you can't remain distant any longer.

Straight off, I need to say that this is not tragedy porn. That's not why I felt so overwhelmed by this. Demick is respectful of the North Korean defectors that she interviews, and never ventures into the realm of the maudlin. The individual lives take center stage, illuminated by what we know of North Korean history. The reader isn't allowed to rest on their laurels. Capitalism doesn't make their lives 100% better when they escape, and pretty much right off the bat Demick clarifies that Nothing To Envy is not about "oh those wacky North Koreans!" Much of this book demonstrates how to brainwash an entire country into an entire ideology... as well as how, and when, the North Koreans discussed here realized they had been deceived. I was astonished by the ingenuity of every single one of the people profiled, both when it came to surviving the famine and when they had to escape. This book bring back individuality to a nation that's so often reduced to a horror story or a joke.

And, yeah, to circle back to my opening paragraph... The sense of individuality in this book will stick with me. I'm completely overwhelmed by just how many lives have been snuffed out in the North Korean famine. So many people with stories akin to those featured in Nothing To Envy. Gone. ...more

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Sep 12, 2019 JanB rated it it was amazing

Recommended to JanB by: Jenna

Shelves: audiobook, 2019-reads

Far from a dry accounting filled with historical detail, this is a look into the lives of six average North Koreans who eventually defect, giving investigative journalist Barbara Demick access to their stories. We are given a peek into what it is like to live under an extreme totalitarian regime. Children are taught to sing anthems of praise where they "have nothing to envy in this world." They are taught that they live in the greatest place on earth, and they know so little of the outside world Far from a dry accounting filled with historical detail, this is a look into the lives of six average North Koreans who eventually defect, giving investigative journalist Barbara Demick access to their stories. We are given a peek into what it is like to live under an extreme totalitarian regime. Children are taught to sing anthems of praise where they "have nothing to envy in this world." They are taught that they live in the greatest place on earth, and they know so little of the outside world that they believe this to be true.

Demick excels in humanizing the North Korean people. We know the regime is evil, but the people are not. As she gets inside their hearts and minds, we see that there is much more that binds humans together than sets us apart. These are ordinary people. But their lives are anything but ordinary. Their individual stories are touching. The famine of the '90s is covered, which killed upwards of millions of people. It’s difficult to describe the horrors and deprivation they endure(d) on a daily basis.

Most defected out of desperation, not out of disloyalty. When they did so, their eyes were opened as they began to understand that everything they had been told was propaganda and a lie. The challenges continued as they learned to assimilate into a modern culture of which they knew nothing about. When one defector, a physician, realized that a bowl of rice and meat on the ground was for a dog, she was shocked that “dogs in China ate better than doctors in North Korea.”

This is a must read for everyone. It left me heartsick over man's inhumanity to man, but it is not without hope. It renewed an appreciation and respect for the perseverance of the human spirit, gave me a new appreciation for our country, and put what I consider my 'problems' in perspective.

The narrator of the audiobook is excellent, which, combined with compelling content, made for a riveting listen. I can't recommend this highly enough. It's been in my tbr for years. My son-in-law and my Goodreads friend Jenna recently read and recommended it, which was the incentive I needed to finally pick it up. I'm only sorry I waited so long. ...more

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Oct 22, 2014 Iris P rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, iris-s-favorites, geopolitics, asia, human-rights

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

photo Barbara Author 2.jpg-20130212_zpszoptyjca.jpg

Barbara Demick is an American author and journalist

"Our father, we have nothing to envy in the world. Our house is within the embrace of the Workers’ Party. We are all brothers and sisters. Even if a sea of fire comes toward us, sweet children do not need to be afraid, our father is here. We have nothing to envy in this world."
Popular song taught to North Korean school children praising the Dear Leader
********************************************* ...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Lilo rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: everyone interested in what happens on our globe

Shelves: history-in-the-making, current-affairs, totalitarian-state, non-fiction-narrative-tale

This book is a must read — an absolute MUST READ! It is inexcusable not to be informed about what has been going on in North Korea. What we hear on the news is just simply not enough.

There are great reviews of this book on Goodreads. So I won’t elaborate about the contents of this book.

What I would like to do is compare The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (in short DPRK, or just simply North Korea) to Hitler’s Third Reich.

Upfront: The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is just as much ...more

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Dec 16, 2016 Lisa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I'm really pleased that I discovered and decided to purchase this book. I've always wondered how such a horrible regime could hold for so long, and now I've had quite a few questions answered. I've seen the propaganda, and have always wondered what's going on behind those blank faces. Now, I'll know just a bit of the true conflict, sadness and horror. Thanks to the author for these insights into just a few lives of these brave, strong willed people. Highly recommended

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Sep 20, 2011 Maciek rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ebook, history, non-fiction, read-in-2011, how-the-world-works

On December seventeenth in 2011, Kim Jong-il has died. Known to the world as the supreme leader of the world's most closed society, the "hermit kingdom" which encompasses the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, he has received the posthumous titles of the Eternal General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and Eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission. His death has been mourned by the population in a dramatic and uncontrolled way, with people crying helplessly and expressing t On December seventeenth in 2011, Kim Jong-il has died. Known to the world as the supreme leader of the world's most closed society, the "hermit kingdom" which encompasses the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, he has received the posthumous titles of the Eternal General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and Eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission. His death has been mourned by the population in a dramatic and uncontrolled way, with people crying helplessly and expressing their despair. One might wonder how much of it was real. Kim's father, Kim Il-sung is well known for being the country's Eternal President. Both are treated with great reverence. Will Kim Jong-un, the current leader of North Korea, complete the Trinity?

There is a video on YouTube titled "Good Morning Pyongyang" (which you can see if you click here) that can serve as a good illustration of what North Korea is about. It opens with a Pyongyang sunset, slowly revealing tall concrete buildings and some cranes. One immediately notices the complete lack of automobiles of any sort; if a person appears, he or she is walking. However, what immediately captures the attention is an image of a female traffic controller. Dressed up in full regalia, she is standing at a traffic control post in the middle of the street, under a big umbrella . Although there are no cars and the streets are basically empty, she performs her job: turning around, ordering throngs of invisible cars to pass, stop, pass again, stop again, from left to right and right to left, from all sides, never stopping, never resting, forever busy managing the nonexistent traffic. I think that this image better than any other raises the question of how democratic the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea really is, and is it really a kind of society which takes good care of its citizens?

North Korea seems to be the country which fell out of the world, as you can see if you'll take a look at an satellite photograph of the Far East taken at nighttime, you'll see Japan and South Korea, and even China; but you'll also see a black spot. That's DRPK. It's literally a black hole, where 23 million of people have to manage their daily lives, often living without what we take for granted: running water, heating...media, entertainment, freedom.

Nothing to Envy is a record of six refugees from DRPK who fled to the South and their experiences of living in both countries. Althought the book is completely gripping, it is also very hard to read at times - remember that this is non fiction, and all of this actually happened - the stories of the defectors are very moving, like the story of two young North Koreans who fell in love, and thanks to the complete blackout were able to take long walks, and very tragic - stories of people dying from starvation (can you believe that during the time from 1994 to 1998 as much as 80,000 (that's eighty thousand) to 3,500,000 (that's three and a half million) people died in a famine? Through the individual lives of these defectors we are able to see a broader picture of life inside the DRPK, and although the society is a collective one the theme of individuality is the one which carries the book: each defector has a separate and fascinating story to tell, shocking and gripping. They're escape to the South is not the end of their problems, as one of the defectors mourns that she has left her children behind; some North Koreans find themselves unable to exist in a society which we would call "normal"; two soldiers from the North who accidentally crossed the border have asked to be send back to the DRPK. The book shows how an individual is affected by an opressive regime, and how a whole nation can be brainwashed to accept an ideology. A nation where people die from hunger, but which is among the world's most militarized nations; which disappears from sight during the night, but has active nuclear and space programs. A nation where ordinary lives have been turned into a grim horror story or a macabre joke; where stories like these take place every day.

This is a book I can't recommend enough for people interested in North Korea, because of the unique individual perspective it gives. It's never maudlin, sentimental or manipulative. It is honest, and brutally so. It is heartbreaking when one thinks at how many lives are still trapped, and moreover don't even know that they are trapped. Nothing to Envy shows how people believed in their country, only to discover that they have been told lies. One might call them naive, but in what position are we to make this judgement, in our conditioned apartments with broadband internet connections? In a world where we are able to talk about this? Imagine being born and brought up in a subterranean bunker, where the outside world is barely mentioned or brought down with negativity. This is the world that North Koreans live in today, at this moment, and this is a book which deserves to be read for people to understant it. ...more

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Aug 08, 2017 Carol rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

Correct, 4 stars. I know, I know, I don't give stars but I've decided that when I have little to say or add to the many superior reviews of a book, perhaps the stars and a few words from me will suffice.

I have been meaning to read something, anything about North Korea for some time now. With the strife between our countries it seems paramount now. What better than to hear personal stories from the people who live there to give me a better understanding of mindset?

Though Barbara Demick's book wa ...more

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Apr 23, 2014 Caroline rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Caroline by: Shelley

Shelves: 5-star-books, world

Marvellous. I would say a must read.

This book has several threads....

Firstly it discusses the general idiosyncrasies of life in North Korea under the guru gaze of Kim il-sung and then Kim Jong-il. Think Gulliver's Travels mixed with Alice in Wonderland, then give it a good shake.... I could hardly believe what I was reading. It's another world, and not in a good way.

Secondly, it follows the lives of several people who ultimately defect to South Korea. These people give us great insight int ...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Michael Gerald rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

If you thought that George Orwell's satires Animal Farm and 1984 are just works of fiction, think again. Look at a map and find North Korea. That's a present-day, real-life Animal Farm.

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Aug 31, 2019 Jenna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to Jenna by: Beata

Shelves: non-fiction

Satellite image of the Koreas at night, by the Expedition 38 crew

What is it about North Korea that commands our attention? I find it hard to resist books written about this strange country, ruled by the iron fist of an even stranger dictator and his strange predecessors. When I started this book, my fiancee asked why I wanted to read another book about North Korea; after all, there probably isn't much more to learn that I haven't already in other books. This closed off country doesn't exactly exude information and so much of it is a black hole. I think that is part of the mystique, part of the reason why I'm drawn to books about it, because there isn't a plethora of information to be gleaned about this country. Anything new fills in that black hole just a little. It is not easy to read about North Korea and its suffering citizens and yet I am compelled to.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea is an incredible look into the lives of several ordinary North Koreans who have been able to make the dangerous and difficult journey to South Korea, where they are now trying to build the best possible lives for themselves. The author, Barbara Demick, spent seven years living in South Korea where she got to know people who had defected from North Korea. This book is their stories. It is written with much insight and compassion and I feel like I really got to know the people she wrote about. Ms. Demick shares with us their lives, their hopes and dreams and fears, the suffering they endured and the suffering they still endure even though they are now "free". Many (most?) books that are written in this way, with several individual human interest stories rather than concrete facts, annoy me. And yet. And yet for a country so cloaked in secrecy as North Korea, I think books like this are the best way to learn about it. It is not easy to learn about; the suffering of these people is incredible. It is difficult to read and difficult to contemplate. Difficult to even write a review. Nothing I can say can so much as hint at the level of suffering in North Korea.

I've read several books about North Korea, and I think this one is my favourite. If you're interested in getting an inside look at the lives of North Koreans, this book is for you. Highly recommend. ...more

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Dec 02, 2016 Caroline rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reading-slump-remedies, the-inside-story, truth-stranger-than-fiction, nonfiction, she-wrote-it, investigative, narrative-nonfiction

***NO SPOILERS***

The subtitle is “Ordinary Lives in North Korea,” but “Extraordinary Lives in North Korea” may be more fitting. Author Barbara Demick chose to approach the topic of North Korea smartly--by interviewing at length a handful of North Korean defectors from various walks of life. Actually, “interviewing” feels inaccurate. She presented the kinds of intimate details exchanged between confidants. North Korea is unlike any country on Earth, and the subjects of this book are very unlike t ***NO SPOILERS***

The subtitle is “Ordinary Lives in North Korea,” but “Extraordinary Lives in North Korea” may be more fitting. Author Barbara Demick chose to approach the topic of North Korea smartly--by interviewing at length a handful of North Korean defectors from various walks of life. Actually, “interviewing” feels inaccurate. She presented the kinds of intimate details exchanged between confidants. North Korea is unlike any country on Earth, and the subjects of this book are very unlike the average person.

It’s pretty much common knowledge that North Korea is its own oppressed and highly mysterious world. Demick stated that the fact that it’s managed to remain as it has for this long is surprising. Communism fell in Germany and then in the Soviet Union; it would seem North Korea isn’t far behind, yet it continues to operate miserably and hopelessly as it has for decades. She believes its fall is imminent.

Nothing to Envy isn’t exactly about North Korea, though. It isn’t the best book to read to learn about North Korea’s history or anything detailed about Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Demick explained little about them, mostly focusing on how beloved Kim Il-sung was (a fascinating example of how thorough North Korea’s brainwashing is) and how important such love and admiration was to him. She says much less about Kim Jong-il beyond explaining that he was less capable than his father and fairly disliked by the North Koreans. She described North Korea’s landscape more than she delved into the country’s history. She wrote little about the prison camps not because of any oversight; it was because, as she explained, those prisons are for life. No one is freed (or manages to escape) to provide a description.

This book is about the people. Demick kept the humanity in their stories, and this is the book’s strength. She wanted her readers, no matter who they are, to relate to her subjects as easily as they do their own friends. These people differ greatly. They range from an overworked doctor to an incorrigible teen thief. The result is a satisfying, full portrait of what life is as a citizen of this country. To read Nothing to Envy is to walk in the shoes of a North Korean, especially a North Korean during the country’s famine, which lasted from 1994 to 1998 and killed as many as 3.5 million people. It’s to eat a concoction of salted water bulked up with tree bark, sawdust, and weeds from the backyard; to hurry past emaciated corpses at the train station daily; to witness a man be publicly executed for stealing copper wire off a dead phone line.

Demick was shrewd in her choices, because these stories are equally interesting. Her writing is accomplished but not complicated; she transitioned logically from one story to another; and the book as a whole never gets dry. What’s especially outstanding is that she deftly wove facts about this unusual country into the personal stories when the facts are relevant to those stories, so all learning about North Korea feels natural. This technique really works. Focusing primarily on the inhabitants is almost always more engrossing in a nonfiction about a country.

Nothing to Envy can probably be considered the benchmark for understanding what it’s like not just to live but to survive in North Korea. Those the least bit curious should open this, look at that shocking map heading chapter one, and try to resist the pull. ...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Cheryl rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: global-intrigue, audiobooks, asia, mesmerizing

"It is not easy for somebody who has escaped a totalitarian country to live in the free world. Defectors have to rediscover who they are in a world that offers endless possibilities. Choosing where to live, what to do, even which clothes to put on in the morning is tough enough for those of us accustomed to choices. It can be utterly paralyzing for people who've had decisions made for them by the state their entire lives."

These are the stories of North Korean defectors: people who risked everyth "It is not easy for somebody who has escaped a totalitarian country to live in the free world. Defectors have to rediscover who they are in a world that offers endless possibilities. Choosing where to live, what to do, even which clothes to put on in the morning is tough enough for those of us accustomed to choices. It can be utterly paralyzing for people who've had decisions made for them by the state their entire lives."

These are the stories of North Korean defectors: people who risked everything to escape a totalitarian country.

It was impossible to read this nonfiction book and not be reminded of George Orwell's 1984.; difficult to read Demick's recount of how she gathered the information without seeing traces of Laura Ling's Somewhere Inside: One Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home.

Demick was a journalist and Bureau Chief for North and South Korea when she gathered information for this book. It took her fifteen years of research, interviews, and writing to get us these heartrending stories. Forgive me as I dare to suggest that you could read all you want about North Korea, but you will never see it the same after reading the accounts of these people who actually lived there. Nothing you've seen in the media can prepare you for the lives behind the scenes of this regime.

"Our Father, we have nothing to envy in this world." (The name of this book is based on this chant from North Koreans to their father-dictator).

They were not allowed to watch televisions or listen to radios. Daily activity and speech were monitored. They were told that the rest of the world were evil capitalists whose ideas of individualism had them living in seclusion, hiding from each other in fear of being killed. Speaking up against "the great leader" was a serious crime.

Again: think, Winston in 1984. Oh Orwell, you psychic genius.

What Demick does well here is structure individual stories around facts on North Korea: history about the separation of Korea after the war, and statistics that will stun you (i.e.: on poverty). The research is thorough and the interviews came together like a story that unfolds well. I was particularly stricken by the information about daily diet and the starvation that forced some Koreans to eat grass just to stay alive. My surprise wasn't because I was naive to think that poverty isn't a worldwide problem, but because what I was reading about (or rather hearing through the beautiful audio production by Karen White on my iPad) was what one would expect in a war torn country. Yet there I was, reading about the intentional crippling of an economy.

There are no words to describe the brave defectors who risked everything to escape to South Korea: some left families and their families were taken to labor camps; those who started over and found a way to mingle with a free society; those who struggled to find confidence and independence. There is a couple in love, a matriarch who was once loyal to the regime, a doctor who had to restart medical school when she escaped, a young businesswoman.

Read this and you'll worry about the future of world politics. ...more

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Sep 24, 2011 Zöe Zöe rated it it was amazing

Shelves: korean

This is an incredible book! I rarely cry for books though am a greedy reader. "Nothing to Envy" makes me cry many times. I can't stop reading it.

I never try to understand North Korea, for Chinese people like me, North Korea is ignored. We are proud of our market and economy, meanwhile making jokes of North Korea partner. But I don't know North Korea people live in such a condition in 1990s, when I was a troubled teenager.

Some of the stories sound familiar, yes, it happened in China and CCCP bef This is an incredible book! I rarely cry for books though am a greedy reader. "Nothing to Envy" makes me cry many times. I can't stop reading it.

I never try to understand North Korea, for Chinese people like me, North Korea is ignored. We are proud of our market and economy, meanwhile making jokes of North Korea partner. But I don't know North Korea people live in such a condition in 1990s, when I was a troubled teenager.

Some of the stories sound familiar, yes, it happened in China and CCCP before, and I can't believe it is still happening. I can't believe there is still a life without electricity, or a smart phone.

I am addicted to East Germany and West Germany stories. I thought that's not the worst version, but close enough. Because you've got people escaping even with blimps. Barbara told me, no. German people are lucky, they put the Berlin Mauer down. How could a country like this still exist??? HOW? When I was reading, a Caterpillar dragging half of Lenin's bronze sculpture across the sky -- a scene from Goodbye Lenin keeps hitting my mind, will North Korean people be able to see that? Previously I don't feel too much from that scene, only get a little bit angry because a writer from HongKong depicts that scene by mistake, and calls the movie "Goodbye Lemon". Well, a person from Hong Kong, who is always shouting to the authorities, is understandable. He may have little sense of CCCP or Lemon, he was allowed to make that mistake, but still funny. Like a kid in US ask "do African kids use Facebook?"

From the book, I am reassured again that people could be touched by the most subtle happenings in their lives, even those who are brainwashed. People change because of small things. People change their minds completely not because of huge event, but trivia. A meal of a dog, a wandering swallow singing a song, an electronic pot for cooking rice, etc. Small things are triggers for them to make their decisions to leave North Korea, even the true believers of the regime. Small things touch the deepest feeling in their hearts, and give the strongest echoes.

My attitude towards DPRK and South Korea changed. CCCP, China, Germany, Korea, four countries, 3 nations, full of stories, tragic enough to tear you apart, but strong enough to pull you together. ...more

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Jan 29, 2017 LeAnne: GeezerMom rated it really liked it · review of another edition

How can any book about North Korea and its people not be fascinating? This one is a composite tale of six people who defected from this very bizarre country and were interviewed at length, off and on for a period of years. Because I read a surreal work of fiction by Adam Johnson called The Orphan Master's Son, a novel that was very well researched (and which I highly recommend), there were probably not as many surprises for me as for another reader who knows even less about North Korea.

Because How can any book about North Korea and its people not be fascinating? This one is a composite tale of six people who defected from this very bizarre country and were interviewed at length, off and on for a period of years. Because I read a surreal work of fiction by Adam Johnson called The Orphan Master's Son, a novel that was very well researched (and which I highly recommend), there were probably not as many surprises for me as for another reader who knows even less about North Korea.

Because we get very personal histories, it was interesting to find out that a class system is alive and well there, making it impossible for young people in love to marry one another if one has some sort of shame in the family. The shame might be to have relatives living in China or South Korea - this offense taints the family bloodline for three generations, regardless of the intellect or talent or physical status of the person. If one of your distant relatives had somehow defected to China or to South Korea, his immediate family would be thrown into prison, probably for life. Those related to the defector - but not by bloodlines - could keep their freedom, but the next three generations would be hard pressed to find education or to marry above their station.

The class system also rewards those with good lineage and good service with a bit of extra food or acceptance into university. What was darkly amusing was the experience of one person who had achieved a high level of scholarly pursuit, but when he finally made it to South Korea, he realized that he indeed was very progressive in his knowledge - knowledge tied to the 1950s and 60s! Everything he knew and instructed university students in had been obsolete for decades.

While I had heard of the food shortages in the 1990s, I had no idea how desperate a famine it really was. Like the people in the Siege of Leningrad who were starved for hundreds of days, the North Korean families died of starvation or were stunted in their growth and development for a decade. By the late 90s, North Korean men only had to reach 5 feet in height to be admitted to the armed services - with the exception of the ulra elite, everyone was underweight. This book was published in 2010, and at that time it appeared that food was still scarce. People could still be seen on their knees by the side of the road, pulling weeds aside to look for edible plants.

There are a few stories about the work prisons which were not all that surprising except for the fact that a tiny offense, a joke made about the great leaders height for example, could send you to prison for over a year. The six individuals that the author interviewed over the years were all from a city close to the Chinese border called Chongjin, and while a couple of them did spend time in prison, most of the story is based on life in the city during the starving times of the 90s. Kim Il-Sung and his son Kim Jong-Il were in power during the timeframe that is covered by this book, so you will not find anything about Kim Jong-Un here. Who knows what fresh atrocities are happening now? Like his father and grandfather before him, what funds he has goes into weapons instead of providing food for his people. All three generations of dictators color the Americans as evil, so all of the defectors were stunned to eventually discover that what food did appear came from humanitarian efforts that the US and UN provided.

This was an interesting and eye-opening book, however I would highly recommend that you not listen to it by audio as I did. The narrator is extremely staccato in her pronunciation and quite slow to boot. One thing that occurred to me is that perhaps she is tightly spoken by intention. There may be Korean readers listening to the book in English, and if the words are slowly and clearly spoken, then it would be easier for them to absorb.

The first half of the book reads as a bit dry, and there are a handful of phrases that repeated throughout chunks of the book (she had arrived...he had arrived) in such close proximity that they were noticeable. The style of storytelling is not particularly compelling in the first half, but the lives of these ordinary people certainly are.

It is absolutely horrifying to know that there are millions of people living in such strange and horrific circumstances, and the irony is that they are so encapsulated in their country, that they believe the entire world is in the same boat with them. Say a little prayer for the people of North Korea. They are bright and hard-working and dedicated to their families, but are locked in a cult like state with a third generation madman ruling them. God bless them. ...more

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Jun 14, 2010 Lisa Vegan rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Lisa by: Ginny Messina

Shelves: groups-buddies, social-culture, history, 1-also-at-librarything, readbooks-female-author-or-illust, z2016, zz-5star, non-fiction, biography, orphaned-and-quasi-orphaned-kids

I started reading this book as a buddy read with a Goodreads friend, but she decided it wasn’t the right book at the right time for her, so I continued on alone, grateful that it had been her suggestion and I got it off my to read shelf, and I’m so glad that I did.

There is a helpful map and I love maps in books, though I wish it had been even more heavily labeled as many places were mentioned didn’t appear on it. I also appreciated the photos. Each chapter started with one photo, though I wish t I started reading this book as a buddy read with a Goodreads friend, but she decided it wasn’t the right book at the right time for her, so I continued on alone, grateful that it had been her suggestion and I got it off my to read shelf, and I’m so glad that I did.

There is a helpful map and I love maps in books, though I wish it had been even more heavily labeled as many places were mentioned didn’t appear on it. I also appreciated the photos. Each chapter started with one photo, though I wish that that many more photos were included. Why there are so relatively few is certainly understandable though.

I found it helpful to read the notes for chapters that are at the end of the book as soon as I read their corresponding chapters. They’re not long and I think that there is great benefit to reading them when the chapters’ contents are still fresh in the reader’s mind.

While I wanted more, more people and more updates on each person and more information, it’s just because what’s there is so good.

When I read books such as this I go back and look at what I was doing, eating, etc. during the periods and on the days mentioned. (I have schedule books going back to 1977.) I’m always stunned to read what some people have gone through during my lifetime, and unfortunately that includes now.

Somehow this feels like a perfectly crafted book. It’s non-fiction that reads like fiction, so much so that a few times I caught myself thinking something such as oh that’s too bad but it is realistic, and then realizing of course it’s realistic because these are real people’s real stories. The reader really gets to really know the six main people and gets a clear sense of how it was for others mentioned and also for the general populace.

While a tremendously upsetting account, it helped me to know that the six people focused on had all gotten out of North Korea (though it’s impossible to not think about the people still there or who were stuck there and are likely dead and those who did die) but these are brave and strong people, and there was some humor, and the storytelling was so riveting, that despite the horrors, it wasn’t exactly a depressing book, though there were plenty of heartbreaking events I will likely always remember. I felt a lot of suspense wondering how people were going to manage to escape. The way their stories were told did not disappoint.

This is an excellent book. I had none of my usual contemplating whether it should be 4 or 5 stars or whether I needed to include a half star. 5 stars it was, and I knew that most of the way through. It would have had to go way downhill for me to give it anything other than 5 stars and that never happened. Top notch! Very hard to put down! It’s a true page-turner and always engaging. Very well researched. It didn’t improve my mood about people or governments though, including the North Korean and also my own United States government. I already knew a few things about how things were in North Korea, but I learned so much more about the country, and while much of what was described was highly disturbing it was also fascinating. It helped that for the most part the people were likeable and at least relatable, even with the cultural differences and often experiences vastly different from anything I’ve experienced.

I really can’t recommend this book highly enough. The author’s other book also looks intriguing. She certainly chooses interesting and challenging topics. I’m eager to see what she will write next. ...more

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Jul 01, 2011 Marialyce rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, june-2011

This was an extremely well written book about the ills that are experienced by those who live in North Korea. Operating under a regime that would make "big brother" proud, these poor people suffer from inhumane living, working, and survival elements that make those of us use to freedom and free choice cringe. The author, Miss Demick, follows the lives of six people whose lives are so controlled that they are not even permitted to embrace in public. Living under a dictatorship, the only other tha ...more

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Feb 18, 2017 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 21st-century, biographical, asia, non-fiction

North Korea reminds me of the old kingdom of the Zulus, in that it seemed only possible for both states that only one man could ever be fat, the nation's strategic fat reserves carried for security on one person, rather as the Merovingians made long hair their distinctive marker of royal status so these modern states had the male pot belly.

Journalist Barbara Demick has sown together a narrative account of six North Korean lives from the city of Chongjin in the north west from the 1990s through t North Korea reminds me of the old kingdom of the Zulus, in that it seemed only possible for both states that only one man could ever be fat, the nation's strategic fat reserves carried for security on one person, rather as the Merovingians made long hair their distinctive marker of royal status so these modern states had the male pot belly.

Journalist Barbara Demick has sown together a narrative account of six North Korean lives from the city of Chongjin in the north west from the 1990s through to their defection and settlement in South Korea. Her intention was that the lives told would overlap and verify each other, at least in general outlines.

The broad picture is not surprising(view spoiler), but the resultant account easy to read. I reached for it off the shelf for the rather irreverent reason that I am attempting the increase the number of books I read that were written by women and Mme Demick gave every appearance of fitting the bill. I knew very little about Korea and most of that from Steve's reviews, which admittedly don't appear on the surface to have much in common with the contemporary situation. But as is generally the case, even curiously extreme states can have deep roots, or draw on native traditions. Ultra Confucian might be one way to think of the pre 1989 North Korea, focused on a benevolent if Spartan, Paternalistic leader who provided bi-weekly rations and biannual suits of clothing to a doting and dependant subject people. The deep problems were that this basic level of subsistence was heavily subsidised by other communist states, and the country lacks sufficient land suitable for agriculture to meet the population's calorific needs. The story really begins then with the side into chronic malnutrition and starvation with the authorities gambling such resources as they did have on developing rockets and weapon's grade plutonium presumably in the hope of threatening their neighbours into providing food stuffs.

There was a Darwinistic element to the famine, those who felt that stealing was a sin were among the first to die, those who could digest any ground plant matter were better placed to survive.

I was curious that Demick mentioned the stripping of copper from railway lines to be sold as scrap by free marketeering individuals - surely that happens in all countries, or maybe it is a habit peculiar to Britain with its fierce entrepreneurial spirit nourished by the Juche necessities of Brexit that such unconsidered trifles are snapped up by the bold and the free, in any case the point is rather that North Korea didn't have the resources to replace such losses nor provide its soldiers with socks. The country was literally asset stripping itself in an effort to survive in the 1990s.

There is then for all Demick's sources a side into hunger, poverty and loss, circumstances that lead them to do something relatively exceptional for North Koreans according to Demick, which is to defect over the river border with China and from thence to South Korea, via Mongolia or airports. Malnutrition really saps a person's abilities to do anything including committing thought-crimes, and this a close approximation to a 1984 state, with the leadership rewritting history all the better to control the future, so the small number of defections is not to be sniffed at.

I was curious at the relation of women turning to prostitution because it was hard within the scope of this account to imagine many men having access to the spare cash or food to purchase said services, equally one woman was sent out from her factory to collect dog shit shortly after Demick had told us how rare dogs were in North Korea as food source or pets leaving me to imagine one might be more likely to happen across a lump of ambergris on the beach than a piece of canine excrement in North Korea, perhaps this simply underlines the futility of the exercise.

Demick says :"The sad truth is that North Korean defectors are often difficult people. Many were pushed into leaving not only because they were starving, but because they couldn't fit in at home. And often the problems trailed after them, even after they crossed the border" (p260), every society has its winners and its losers, Demick's informants were mostly for a variety of arbitrary, if meaningful in a north Korean context, marginalised people. The interesting and sad part of the story was their difficulties in adapting to life in the South, were the authorities have even developed a half-way house campus complex to train defectors for their new lives in the hope of developing expertise and the necessary techniques in the event of national reunion. Their endings are happyish, survival in harsh circumstances is not the most pleasant business, and somebody always has to pay for the lunch. ...more

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May 05, 2018 Teresa rated it really liked it

It’s one thing to read dystopias like 1984 and theoretically visualize an authoritarian government; it’s another thing entirely to read of real people who actually live under totalitarian rule. If the reading of a classic like the former is perhaps a more powerful reading experience, this nonfiction work proves a more empathetic one.

Demick writes in an ‘easy’ style, making this a work anyone can (and perhaps should) consume. The details of the rough lives of her six subjects and their resourcefu ...more

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Jan 03, 2013 PorshaJo rated it really liked it

Very engaging look at North Korea. You hear so many stories about what happens there but book really brought everything to the front. I have tried to read another book somewhat on North Korea and just could not finish it. Nothing to Envy kept me enthralled from the very beginning. It is hard to believe the things that went on in the country especially in the times we live in today. It is a heart-breaking read but an eye opening one also. Not to be missed.

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Sep 02, 2019 Connie G rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club, history, non-fiction, north-korea, politics

North Korea is so closed off to the rest of the world that Barbara Demick had to interview defectors who escaped to South Korea to learn what conditions were like in the North. She concentrated on six individuals from Chongjin, a northwestern city, who crossed a river into China and eventually reached South Korea.

They told the author about the famine under Kim Il-sung and Kim Song-il when thousands died. Industry stopped due to lack of power, workers were not paid, and monthly allotments of food ...more

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Oct 14, 2014 Jessica rated it really liked it

Shelves: groups-of-people, wish-i-owned, kind-of-depressing, bad-guys

I loved this book. I really knew next to nothing about North Korea before I read it, and it was a great introduction. Basically the North Korean regime is like one of those psychos who's kidnapped a bunch of little kids and keeps them chained in the basement their whole lives so they never know anything of the outside world, only unlike when psychos do this everyone else in the global neighborhood basically knows what's going on in that creepy house.

Demick's book relies on extensive interviews w I loved this book. I really knew next to nothing about North Korea before I read it, and it was a great introduction. Basically the North Korean regime is like one of those psychos who's kidnapped a bunch of little kids and keeps them chained in the basement their whole lives so they never know anything of the outside world, only unlike when psychos do this everyone else in the global neighborhood basically knows what's going on in that creepy house.

Demick's book relies on extensive interviews with defectors, and tells the story of six North Koreans' lives in the northern industrial city of Chongjin and of their defections to South Korea. The thing that's so great about Nothing to Envy is that it presents its subjects as so easy to relate to and to care about, that it avoids the compassion fatigue, detachment, and defensive lack of empathy that can accompany reading about such horrors. There are portions of this book that are harrowing to read and difficult to imagine, but we can process the idea of witnessing a nation starve to death because we see it through the eyes and the reactions of people we've come to feel we know and understand. The book seems very well-researched and is certainly not a fluff piece by anyone's standards, but for me it was this triumph of the human interest angle that made it so effective. I felt that Demick really got to know her subjects and that she presented them as interesting and complex people, without shying away from an acknowledgment -- familiar from stories of Holocaust survivors -- of how those individuals with the wits, strength, and courage to survive and defect often differ from the general population in sometimes unattractive ways. I was hugely moved by their stories and impressed by their bravery, but also saw them as real human beings with both good and bad traits, which is part of what made the book work so well.

In short, this book is interesting and engaging and I'd recommend it to pretty much anyone with even a casual interest in North Korea up to 2009, when it was published. ...more

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Jan 01, 2017 Margaret rated it really liked it

Recommended to Margaret by: Feisty Harriet

This nonfiction book written by journalist Barbara Demick was published in 2009. It follows the lives of six North Koreans (actually more if you count family members) who manage to defect to South Korea. One could say the stories they tell might be biased against the North as they are the ones who chose to leave. On the other hand, as Demick explains, western reporters (she works for The Los Angeles Times) are not allowed any free access to Northern Koreans while they are in North Korea. There a This nonfiction book written by journalist Barbara Demick was published in 2009. It follows the lives of six North Koreans (actually more if you count family members) who manage to defect to South Korea. One could say the stories they tell might be biased against the North as they are the ones who chose to leave. On the other hand, as Demick explains, western reporters (she works for The Los Angeles Times) are not allowed any free access to Northern Koreans while they are in North Korea. There are always government workers escorting reporters, who are never allowed to speak to ordinary people privately. In addition, to her interviews of the defectors in South Korea, Demick has done extensive reporting on Korean history, government, and culture. The readers are never left without background or context. And other news stories from outside sources over the years seem to confirm that Demick’s account is most likely accurate.

The structure of the book reminds me of Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns. Both books focus on a few individuals in order to make vivid the stories of a culture and a movement and both books offer solid backgrounds based on years of research. Wilkerson had the great advantage here as she was able to interview thousands of people about their experiences of the Northern Migration and had open access to a wide variety of research resources. Demick, on the other hand, was able to interview only about a hundred defectors from North to South Korea and focused on six, originally from the Chongjin, who had managed to escape to South Korea. (That narrow but deep focus makes it easier for us to envision the place.) And Demick’s research into the facts of life in North Korea was completed despite North Korea’s efforts to prevent reporting about life in North Korea.

The stories she tells are totally compelling as is the picture she paints of the conditions in North Korea up through 2007. The lives these people lived, especially during the widespread famine in the 1990’s, are unbearable to read about. One woman, who was a kindergarten teacher, started her first year teaching with 50 students. By the end of the year, 35 had died from starvation; the remaining 15 were listless and tiny. We read stories about neighbor turning in neighbors, totally corrupt government workers and military, a “business sector” that has nearly ground to a halt, and unbelievably severe and widespread poverty. A college meal was soup made of water, salt, and leaves. Students were privileged; others had nothing. We watch as Chongjin, an industrial city in the far north of North Korea, shuts down its factories and stops delivering food to people. People who do work (such as the kindergarten teacher and a doctor) are not paid—for years. With stories like these, I see how a tyrannical government managed to keep such a tight rein on its people for seventy years. (Everyone feared the government and in order to survive would fight to be accepted as Party members.) As I read today in the newspaper that North Korea is saying they will be shortly testing an ICBM capable of delivering an atomic bomb as far as to the United States, I have to try and square that ambition with a population that has been starved and abused for decades. I have to fear that without a healthy population or current technology (other than nuclear bombs), North Korea might feel it really has no future and nothing to lose. Is there no way anyone out here can do anything about any of this?
...more

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Aug 17, 2016 Daniel Chaikin rated it it was amazing

52. Nothing to Envy : Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
published: December 2009
format: 315 page hardcover
acquired: borrowed from my library
read: Aug 17-20
rating: 5 stars

It's very strange how little we know of what is happening inside North Korea. Demick provided a rare view in through the personal stories of six defectors. These are amazing stories of a very strange place, a real-world [1984] where the ruler is presented as a god, and his son and successor as the son of god. Where 52. Nothing to Envy : Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
published: December 2009
format: 315 page hardcover
acquired: borrowed from my library
read: Aug 17-20
rating: 5 stars

It's very strange how little we know of what is happening inside North Korea. Demick provided a rare view in through the personal stories of six defectors. These are amazing stories of a very strange place, a real-world [1984] where the ruler is presented as a god, and his son and successor as the son of god. Where everyone watches everyone, and a well liked person can get in trouble for stating out loud the slightest criticism of the government. It's a country so closed off that the best and brightest and most supported students have never used the internet. North Korea is off the grid.

But, this Orwellian world collapsed. After the Soviet Union dissolved, it stopped financially supporting North Korea, and the country, far from self-sufficient, began an economic collapse and then an all-out starvation throughout the 1990's. You might have heard something about this, along the lines of President Clinton frustrated North Korea refused to shut down it's nuclear weapons program in return for foreign aid. But, with such a closed off country, there was no real coverage, there were no visuals, no striking dramatic pictures. I have to admit I missed the whole famine. All of North Korea was starving, perhaps 2 million of a the 23 million population died, and some 40% of the children of that period have life-long symptoms related to starvation. I had no idea.

And yet the power structure did not waver. North Korea remains, along with Cuba, the last of the communist holdouts.

For such a well reviewed book, there is not much I can add to the picture. I am surprised both at how little information Demick was able to present, and how much she made out of it. An oddity of North Korea's famine is that there were no refugees. It's not that hard to get to China if one is desperate enough, but the numbers of Koreans trickling through was pretty small, and, for various reasons, the numbers welcomed to South Korea, whose official policy is to welcome North Koreans as fellow countrymen, is minuscule. A couple hundred a year through the 1990's, and maybe a couple thousand a year through the early 2000's. These are all Demick was able to interview, and, for these stories, she only interviewed 100 people. Of course, she only presents six life stories. But what lives. ...more

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About Barbara Demick

Barbara Demick

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Barbara Demick is an American journalist. She is the author of Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood (Andrews & McMeel, 1996). Her next book, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, was published by Spiegel & Grau/Random House in December 2009 and Granta Books in 2010.

Demick was correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer in Eastern Europe from 1993 to 1997. Along with Barbara Demick is an American journalist. She is the author of Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood (Andrews & McMeel, 1996). Her next book, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, was published by Spiegel & Grau/Random House in December 2009 and Granta Books in 2010.

Demick was correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer in Eastern Europe from 1993 to 1997. Along with photographer John Costello, she produced a series of articles that ran 1994-1996 following life on one Sarajevo street over the course of the war in Bosnia. The series won the George Polk Award for international reporting, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for international reporting and was a finalist for the Pulitzer in the features category. She was stationed in the Middle East for the newspaper between 1997 and 2001.

In 2001, Demick moved to the Los Angeles Times and became the newspaper's first bureau chief in Korea. Demick reported extensively on human rights in North Korea, interviewing large numbers of refugees in China and South Korea. She focused on economic and social changes inside North Korea and on the situation of North Korean women sold into marriages in China. She wrote an extensive series of articles about life inside the North Korean city of Chongjin. In 2005, Demick was a co-winner of the American Academy of Diplomacy's Arthur Ross Award for Distinguished Reporting & Analysis on Foreign Affairs. In 2006, her reports about North Korea won the Overseas Press Club's Joe and Laurie Dine Award for Human Rights Reporting and the Asia Society's Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Asian Journalism. That same year, Demick was also named print journalist of the year by the Los Angeles Press Club. In 2010, she won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction for her work, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. The book was also nominated for the U.S.'s most prestigious literary prize, the National Book Award.

Demick was a visiting professor at Princeton University in 2006-2007 teaching Coverage of Repressive Regimes through the Ferris Fellowship at the Council of the Humanities. She moved to Beijing for the Los Angeles Times in 2007 and became Beijing bureau chief in early 2009. Demick was one of the subjects of a 2005 documentary Press Pass to the World by McCourry Films. ...more

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“North Korea invites parody. We laugh at the excesses of the propaganda and the gullibility of the people. But consider that their indoctrination began in infancy, during the fourteen-hour days spent in factory day-care centers; that for the subsequent fifty years, every song, film, newspaper article, and billboard was designed to deify Kim Il-sung; that the country was hermetically sealed to keep out anything that might cast doubt on Kim Il-sung's divinity. Who could possibly resist?” — 48 likes

“North Korean defectors often find it hard to settle down. It is not easy for somebody who’s escaped a totalitarian country to live in the free world. Defectors have to rediscover who they are in a world that offers endless possibilities. Choosing where to live, what to do, even which clothes to put on in the morning is tough enough for those of us accustomed to making choices; it can be utterly paralyzing for people who’ve had decisions made for them by the state their entire lives.” — 37 likes

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Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

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Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

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