North of the DMZ: Essays on Daily Life in North Korea

I've been studying and following the DPRK for around twenty year, have read most books in English on the country, travelled there and kept a close eye on events and life there. I've noticed the flurry of "me too" books on the country, many of which duplicate what is already known, or which repeat well worn tales and stories which have limited basis in experience or evidence. For simply travelling as a tourist tells one relatively little.Andrei Lankov has a rich range of experience based on his own travels to the country when he lived in the USSR and visited as an exchange student, and many times since. He has opened doors on a vast range of topics and facets of DPRK life that you simply will not find so concisely and comprehensively written elsewhere.With such a wide range of books on the country, it is easy to get baffled by the choice and to be disappointed by what you do find. As a result I thoroughly recommend Lankov's book to anyone interested in the DPRK, anyone who travels there, or has travelled there, or those who end up working there for whatever reason. It will dispel myths that north Koreans are robotic worshippers of the Kims, that they are all ascetic, modest and perfectly well behaved, or that capitalism has ever been snuffed out of the country. It will demonstrate not only the well known insane levels of bureaucratic totalitarianism that blankets the country, but how people manage to live under the system.If you want to buy any one book on life in the DPRK, buy this one over any others.