Without You, There Is No Us

“i got really into this because of the incredible book Without You, There Is No Us by Suki Kim, a brilliant and brave work of investigative journalism about working in a boys' school in North Korea from the perspective of a Korean-American person. it has a lot to do with the division of North and South Korea (part of why the title is so poignant, since the author's family is from South Korea) but also the nature of totalitarian dictatorship and the relationship she builds with the boys at the school. i then read the horrifying but riveting Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, which was very educational but not as poetic and literary as Kim's book”