The History Of Literature

For 70 years, the people of North Korea have lived through a totalitarian nightmare – and those of us in the outside world have had little access to their experience. How have generations of oppression and terror affected the psychology of everyday people? How do they feel about their situation? What are their hopes? What are their dreams? How do they think, and how do they live? Like so much else about North Korea, these questions were shrouded in darkness…until now. Terry Hong, reader extraordinaire and the curator of the website BookDragon, joins us to talk about an astonishing new development: the publication of short stories by North Korea’s first dissident writer. Works Discussed: The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea, by “Bandi” (preorder only until March 7, 2017) Dear Leader: My Escape from North Korea, by Jang Jin-sung Recommended Books about North Korea: Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden How I Became a North