Nothing to envy by Barbara Demick

The journalist Barbara Demick is seen to follow the lives of North Koreans over the period of 15 years showing us a lot about the hidden and harshly controlled of their communist state.

As a rule I'm not keen on purely factual books, but, this is one of the few that I would say is worth reading. IT portrays life in North Korea as Orwellish making it unbelievable to readers in free societies. It constantly changes between the different people and weaves between their storys. It is surprisingly understandable for all the stories and it helps to keep it flowing and interesting to the reader.

To me the most interesting was the fact that not all of the people that were interviewed for the book had been completely against the regime. In fact most of them seemed to find it very positive at first with them genuinely being heartbroken when Kim Il Sung died. This made it a lot more believeable and therefore made it seem (wether it's true or not) to portray the North Korean way of life.

I'd give it maybe a 4/5 and I suggest that if you want to read a factual book then you should read this; it was as hooking as a fiction book.