I’ve run out of shelf space, so I have no room for the recently issued Volume 17 (enlarged edition) of Kim Jong-il’s selected works. Now I’ll never get the full set, or find out how to “More Firmly Strengthen Socialist Revolutionary Position by Doing Party Work Well”. [Read More]
Category: Books on DPRK (page 3)
John Everard launches “Only Beautiful Please”
Former UK ambassador to Pyongyang John Everard has just launched his book “Only Beautiful Please” at a talk to the Korea Society. He caused a stir by saying North Koreans don’t like the Chinese, which links in with something the defector Kim Joo-il said in a letter to the FT in September 2010: North Koreans … [Read More]
The Orphan Master’s Son: best left in the orphanage
Adam Johnson: The Orphan Master’s Son Doubleday, 2012 The publication of The Orphan Master’s Son, the second novel by Adam Johnson, had lucky timing, surfing the wave of interest in the North caused by the death of Kim Jong-il. The newspapers duly lined up to review it to general acclaim, but an early battleground formed: … [Read More]
James Church reviews The Orphan Master’s Son
James Church reviews a new novel set in North Korea – The Orphan Master’s Son (http://t.co/pmm4ujv4) and raises many caveats at 38North.org http://t.co/7jByBVCN [Read More]
Tim Beal’s Crisis in Korea launched
Tim Beal’s new book “Crisis in Korea – America, China and the Risk of War” (Pluto Press) will be launched at Arthur Probsthain Bookshop, 41 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3PE on 25 October, 6.30-8.30 pm. RSVP: [email protected] Tel: 0207 636 1096. Available on Amazon.co.uk now. [Read More]
Jiyoung Song’s Human Rights Discourse in North Korea
Michael Rank reviews Jiyoung Song’s Human Rights Discourse in North Korea: Post-colonial, Marxist and Confucian Perspectives over at North Korean Economy Watch. “Thoughtful and well informed” http://bit.ly/pu8WLS [Read More]
New book on North Korean Art
New book on North Korean art (“Exploring North Korean Arts”) is published following the 2010 exhibition and conference in Vienna. Chapters by Jim Hoare, AidanFC, Koen De Ceuster & others. http://amzn.to/pP3LF0 # [Read More]
DPRK-related books reviewed in Economist
Three DPRK-related books get a brief review in the Economist. Guy Delisle’s Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, the latest James Church, and the thriller Maximum Target by Martin Gower: http://econ.st/mqErGC # Links: LKL reviews Guy Delisle: Pyongyang – A Journey in North Korea [Read More]
Book review: Chris Springer — North Korea Caught in Time
Chris Springer: North Korea Caught in Time – Images of War and Reconstruction with introductory essay by Balázs Szalontai. Garnet Publishing, 2010 (148pp) In the English-speaking world, the story of the Korean war and its aftermath, if told at all, is told first from the perspective of the US and UN combatants that came to … [Read More]
Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy lives up to the hype
Barbara Demick: Nothing to Envy – Real Lives in North Korea Granta, 2010 Why, when Korean Studies bookshelves are dominated by volumes about the North, about which so much less is known than the South, do we need yet another volume? Why, when we have so many defector eye-witness accounts of starvation, torture and oppression, … [Read More]
Book Review: Your Republic is Calling You
Kim Young-ha: Your Republic is Calling You Translated by Kim Chi-young Harcourt, 2010. First published in Korean: 2006 Ki-yong, a North Korean agent, has lived undercover in Seoul for half his life. Inactive for the last 10 years, he is suddenly given an order to return home. Is the order a hoax? Is he being … [Read More]
Illusive Utopia reviewed in the Asia Times
Looks like a fascinating book on North Korean arts. Michael Rank reviews “Illusive Utopia” by Suk-young Kim in the Asia Times: http://bit.ly/96S7hq # This impressively researched book examines performance in North Korea in great detail and in its widest sense, from theater and film to visual art and literature and even fashion [Read More]
Demick wins Samuel Johnson prize
Congratulations to Barbara Demick for winning the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nothing to Envy (reviewed by LKL here) Through extensive interviews with defectors, Los Angeles Times journalist Barbara Demick shows in a compelling and unforgettable way that this hermetic country is Orwell’s 1984 made reality. Sources: Samuel Johnson Prize website | Guardian # [Read More]
Book review: Life on the Edge of the DMZ
Lee See-woo: Life on the Edge of the DMZ Global Oriental, 2008 Translated by Kim Myung-hee I’ve been dipping in and out of this fascinating though often overly complex book by peace activist Lee Si-Woo. It’s sometimes hard to tell whether the English translation – for the most part unfussy – is sometimes too literal, … [Read More]
Nothing to Envy: it brought tears to the eyes of a jaded cynic
LKL reports from the book launch of Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy – Real Lives in North Korea It was a well-informed audience attending Barbara Demick’s book launch at the Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday, many of whom had been to North Korea. As the strains of a Mozart Symphony wafted upstairs from the concert … [Read More]
Book review: Hwang Sun-won – The Descendants of Cain
Hwang Sun-won: The Descendants of Cain Translated by Suh Ji-moon and Julie Pickering East Gate / UNESCO / Routledge 1997. Originally published 1954 Novels set in post-liberation Korea, or during the Korean war, often make uncomfortable reading, particularly those set in the Soviet sphere of influence, and where the story is set in the countryside. … [Read More]