The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea

Aunque repetitivas ( alguien honesto y trabajador machacado por el sistema), me ha sorprendido las historias por su calidad.
Mucha suerte y ánimo.

Impressive short stories from an oppressive dictatorship. Small things that depict the absurdity and cruelty of a system that spies on the citizens and deals out heavy punishments for little things and thought crimes.

The first work of fiction to come out of North Korea - smuggled and written under the pseudonym Bandi which means firefly in Korean. It's translated by the Korean translator du jour Deborah Smith, she of The Vegetarian and Human Acts.

This is a collection of grim short stories and while it flies under the banner of fiction and certainly reads like some absurdist dystopia, you get the sense it is more lightly fictionalized reportage than imaginary fiction. It's a bleak portrayal of North Korea that shows how it breaks the strong, the proud and loyal. How it tears at families and sets citizens against each other while insisting on keeping up appearances at all costs.

There isn't a lot of nuance to these stories - they're more blunt instruments bludgeoning their points home. But maybe nuance is a luxury that has no place for the people living in North Korea.