Suki Kim's In-Depth Look at North Korea's Elite: An Investigative Report

Kaustav: If you are looking for gory behind the scenes documentation of North Korea’s dictatorship, this is not the book for you. However, if you truly enjoy good literature, you should definitely give this book a read. It not only shows the beautiful relationships that can be forged between the most unlikely groups of people, but also shows the daily internal struggles that Suki Kim went through just to be able to bring this story out. There’s poetry even in the way she narrates some of the most heart wrenching anecdotes. I’d suggest this not only to those who want to know more about this forbidden nation, but also to those who want to read about how beautiful relationships are formed in the most unlikely of places.

India on May 21, 2022

Berenice: Interesante libro para quien tenga curiosidad de cómo es Corea del Norte y cómo
También incluso a la élite estudiantil tienen también restricciones.

Mexico on Jan 24, 2021

Kindle Customer: This book sweetly describes the life of some innocent students and how they slowly become acknowledged with the western world. Loved the emotion of the teacher and the details about the boys.

Netherlands on Feb 05, 2020

Lisa: This is an excellent and unique perspective on North Korea. The author, Kim, is an American woman of Korean descent who, despite being non-religious, joins a Christian-run university on the outskirts of Pyongyang -- the only foreign-run university in North Korea, and works as a teacher of English there.
I appreciate that this book does not delve too deeply into well-known facts about North Korea, but rather provides fresh new insights into an admittedly narrow slice of the population : the sons of the elite. Kim maintains a level head, neither glamorizing nor belittling her charges, but portraying them as the complex individuals they are. The reader begins to feel the same affection and concern for the students as Kim did.

Her experience is also enriched by being a woman of Korean descent, who speaks Korean fluently. This is incredibly rare among novels about North Korea written in English (except those written by defectors, which then suffer from translation issues as they are nearly always written in Korean first). As a genuine native speaker of both Korean and English, Kim's novel is both an enjoyable read and also provides important cultural context, clearly...

United States on Jan 18, 2019

Victor Oliveira Tomanik: Achei bem interessante o livro, dá uma visão nova sobre o macabro dia a dia dentro do regime.
Eu achei que algumas passadas a autora fez algumas deduções desnecessárias sobre os acontecimentos que passou, tentando sempre alfinetar/criticar.
Recomendo para todos

Brazil on Mar 12, 2018

Theodoros Goumas: I bought this book at a time I was living in China and was thinking about going on holidays in North Korea. I had met a Chinese student who did her Erasmus in North Korea and her stories raised my interest even more. This book tells the story of a teacher, my friend told me the story as a student. There are many things in common. Also, having lived in Saudi and China myself, I could relate to many things Kim Suki talks about.
North Korea must be a very bizarre place worth visiting, even though as a tourist/visitor/exchange student/employee, you will hardly see anything of the real every day life.
A well written book that makes you visualise the story being told.

Germany on Jan 20, 2018

Arthur Reber: I posted this review on my website. It can be accessed here: http://arthurreber.com/home/suki-kims-book-on-teaching-in-north-korea.html along with views on a host of topics.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The book chronicles her months teaching at a college in North Korea run (and financed) by fundamentalist Christians. While this seems wildly implausible there’s a strange logic behind it. Their church paid for the construction of the campus and provides the operating budget, the equipment and the teachers. They do not proselytize (or they would be quickly removed). They teach. They believe that North Korea is the next country that God plans to free from state-imposed atheism and they want to be there to be ready to spread the word of Jesus when this happens. They run a similar school in China. They are patient. Kim was hired to teach English by gently disguising her agnosticism.

The title is from a song sung repeatedly by her students, the “You” is the Great Leader Kim Jong-Il and the “Us” is the North Korean people.

Kim gives a remarkable, chilling insight into the black collectivist pit that is...

United States on Feb 19, 2015