I normally run away from books with too much suffering, and any amount at all is potentially too much. This book was not really about suffering, though. It's about trying to be a human in a culture of lies, deprivation and oppression, only you don't know that's what's going on because you're told your life is better than those of anyone else in the world, and are being kept safe from that outside world by your wonderful leader who provides for you. Only he hasn't been providing much lately. There's not enough to eat, for example.

Like growing up in a dysfunctional family, it's still the only family you have. Most people accept the official story. If you don't, you could be sent to a labor camp as a traitor. Besides, everyone around you appears to believe it.

Among defectors, many, perhaps most, want to return to North Korea. They are unprepared for a world with too many choices and in which you have to fend for yourself. Also, you feel that you have betrayed those you left behind.

Recommended, not only to those who want to understand North Korea, but to those who wonder how people can believe ridiculous things and vote against their own interest.