THIS IS PARADISE! is both a shocking and moving portrayal of scenes of every day life in North Korea, a secretive and brutal nation. Hyok Kang writes of the public executions, of the labour camps and mines, the punishment for 'anti-social behaviour', the secret watching of Beijing television, and the spies everywhere who help enforce the regime by denouncing any deviations from the rigidly patrolled norm. And when the famine comes so too does death by starvation of friends and close ones, cannibalism, and political purge. All this is normal for Hyok Kang. After all, the propaganda North Koreans are fed by their government insists that compared to the rest of the world, this is paradise! Woven into this portrayal is the individual story of a boy who likes to draw - some of his accomplished illustrations are included in the book - and of his migration to China as an asylum seeker. This is his story of suffering and survival, and is a rare glimpse of a nation closed to the outside world, whose knowledge of what lies beyond its borders is censured and whose leaders are determined to prevent us from knowing their situation.

About the Author

Hyok Kang escaped from North Korea by crossing the Tumen River to China with his parents. He now lives in South Korea.

Prizes

* Review coverage anticipated * Reading copies available

Reviews

'An engrossing picture of a nation that remains closed to the world, aptly described as the Jurasic Park of communism' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY 'This is a rare and precious insight into the most obscure regime on earth through the startled and observant eyes o 'An engrossing picture of a nation that remains closed to the world, aptly described as the "Jurasic Park of communism' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY 'This is an extraordinary story: a simple, yet luminous, account of what it means to grow up in one of the world's little known and most oppressive dictatorships. This North Korean Harry Potter has the evils of tyranny to contend with and escape is the hard road to an asylum which is hardly that' Lisa Appignanesi 'This is a rare and precious insight into the most obscure regime on earth through the startled and observant eyes of a thirteen-year-old boy who not only escaped but survived to tell this harrowing yet intriguing tale. The most penetrating account of life in North Korea I have ever read' Jon Snow 'Kang recounts his life with the kind of deadpan detail that is all the more powerful for its quiet understatement ... His capacity as a storyteller turns out to be masterly ... The result is a small jewel of a book, one that moves you with compassion while educating you by stealth' Mail on Sunday 'An important and necessary read' Traveller Magazine