Nothing to Envy

Ordinary Lives in North Korea

By: Barbara Demick

Narrated by: Karen White

Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over 15 years - a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung and the unchallenged rise to power of his son, Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population.

Taking us into a landscape never before seen, Demick brings to life what it means to be an average Korean citizen, living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today - an Orwellian world in which radio and television dials are welded to the one government station, a country that is by choice not connected to the Internet, a society in which outward displays of affection are punished, and a police state that rewards informants and where an offhanded remark can send a citizen to the gulag for life. Demick's subjects - a middle-aged party loyalist and her rebellious daughter, an idealistic female doctor, an orphan, and two young lovers - all hail from the same provincial city in the farthest-flung northern reaches of the country. One by one, we witness the moments of revelation, when each realizes that they have been betrayed by the Fatherland and that their suffering is not a global condition but is uniquely theirs.

Nothing to Envy is the first book about North Korea to go deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors, and penetrate the mind-set of the average citizen. It is a groundbreaking and essential addition to the literature of totalitarianism.

©2010 Barbara Demick (P)2009 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A fascinating and deeply personal look at the lives of six defectors from the repressive totalitarian regime of the Republic of North Korea." ( Publishers Weekly)

Excellent subject, but a little long

I find this a fascinating subject. I have always been interested in what it must be like to live in this type of country. When I saw this book I jumped on the chance to listen to it. For the majority of the book it met my expectations however toward the end it lost my interest. I don;t know if the problem was with the book or me.

Very Sobering

one of the most griping set of stories ever heard. The narration breaths life into the madness and starvation of an entire country. If you ever feel the need to challenge your empathy and imagine a life outside of your own, You must take the time to listen to listen to these stories and reflect on our good fortunes.

what a story!

powerfully discriptive and amazing story that just draws you in and places you right in the shoes of the author. one of the best books I've read this year.

Grim, Stark, Colorless and Thoroughly Enjoyable

OK, "enjoyable" is hyperbole. I am listening in 2017, and inagine the Hermit Kingdom is still a trap, a human cage. Ms. Demick's account rings true. Her dedication to facts is not overshadowed by the few liberties she takes in storytelling. I learned a great deal, which was my purpose in buying the audiobook. I recommend it.

Eye Opening Account

If you could sum up Nothing to Envy in three words, what would they be?

Eye Opening Book

Who was your favorite character and why?

All the character were interesting in their own right.

What does Karen White bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She did an excellent job narrating the book.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book was very upsetting. I felt so much for the North Koreans and how they are forced to live every day without and thought of a better life.

Any additional comments?

This book gave the reader so much insight into the day to day life in North Korea and how oppressed the people are. I do not believe that anyone could come away from this story without being moved by how terrible conditions are and how hopeless things are in North Korea. It made me want to reach out to these people with help all the time knowing that the average citizen would never see any of that help.

A important book to hear!

This book really does a good job of describing life in North Korea . The descriptions of the conditions that the people live under is close to Hell or a socialist heaven!

heart wrenching and insightful

a glimpse into a locked down society through the eyes of those that once lived in North Korea.

Nothing to Envy in North Korea

I was serving in the U.S. Army in South Korea 97-98 and was told at the time that the people who lived on the other side of the DMZ were starving. This story showed a series of accounts of what was going on during that time in North Korea. It was worse than I thought. Worth listening to for anyone who wants to know Communism is like.

Detailed and exhaustive

Opening up the world of communism and its continued hold on the North Korean sufferers.

Like a dystopian thriller, but it's real! Shocking

Any additional comments?

A fascinating, true story about everyday life in North Korea that reads like a dystopian thriller. This is not a political book or a book that focuses on nuclear threats from North Korea.

North Koreans live in the most isolated bubble in the world. South Korea and North Korea's language used to be identical but North Koreans have so little contact with the outside world, their colloquial language has not evolved or adopted any new "slang" or changes since the 1950s.

Time in North Korea (a country about the size of Pennsylvania) seems to have stood still since the 1960s. Citizens are kept ignorant about any progress and news in the rest of the world. There is no Internet. Cell phones are banned. It is extremely rare for anyone to own a motorized vehicle.

Citizens are denied free speech, free assembly, religion, movement from one town to the next and there are no workers rights.

There is no independent media offering different points of view. The only radio and television stations are run by the government and meticulously censured. Radios and televisions are permanently locked onto the state channels and to tamper with the locks will land your entire family in a gulag. You can’t turn off the government radio installed in your home, you can only reduce the volume.

Due to a lack of crop fertilizers, human feces is collected all over the country and used to fertilize state grown crops. Food is so scarce that it is typical for people to forage the hillsides for edible weeds and grasses but these hillsides are quickly picked bare. There is not even enough grass or vegetation in the country to raise livestock. Many families are forced to boil tree bark to eat as a meal.


They are always on the edge of starvation in North Korea. Almost half of the children are stunted from malnutrition. They have resorted to cannibalism.

The average North Korean citizen is 3 inches shorter than their South Korean counter-parts due to lack of nutrition. One third of the population is malnourished and emaciated. During the multi-year famine 1/5 of the entire population (3.5 million people) starved to death. Still nobody dared to speak out against the government.

Most citizens live in extreme poverty with random, sporadic access to electricity for heat, cooking or lights. Despite being a communist state, many people are homeless. The only public art are massive propaganda murals and enormous towering statues of Kim Jong-Il and Kim Il-Sung.

Citizens have no freedom to travel within the country without special government permission and official travel papers. Owning a car is unheard of in North Korea. There are huge, wide, empty highways with virtually no traffic on them. Citizens walk or bike everywhere and on the rare occasion that they get permission to travel long distances they must take an old, clunky, crowded government run train.

People are expected to work 7 days a week, even if they are unemployed. It is not unusual to be employed and working 7 days days a week but not receive a paycheck for years. Failure to show up for work without a strong, valid excuse results in severe punishment.


Typical apartment building in North Korea

There are harsh repercussions for even the smallest of crimes. North Koreans believe that political deviance is hereditary, so entire extended families are routinely incarcerated in a gulag for the crime of one family member until three generations of that family has served its sentence, without trial. Something as simple as singing a South Korea pop song can lead to years in a gulag. Many people perish in these brutal gulags.

Citizens are repressed and live in constant fear of their own government. Each citizen's "station" in North Korea's society is based on their "songbun". Songbun is a system of ascribed status. It is based on your ancestors political, social, and economic background as well as current behavior of every single one of your relatives. If one person in your family commits a crime, the entire family can be punished. Songbun is used to determine whether each individual is a trusted citizen, whether they will receive adequate food to survive, whether they will be given opportunities to succeed through access to educational and employment opportunities.


A North Korean guard brutally kicking a prisoner in a labor camp

Struggling though decades of fear and oppression under two totalitarian dictators and suffering through a terrifying multi-year famine that kills off many family members as well as 1/5 of the country's population these ordinary citizens risk their lives to defect. They defect, not to escape communism, but to escape the never ending famine. They risk their lives simply so they can eat enough to survive.

I knew the gulags of North Korea were full of brutal, unspeakable horrors but I was shocked by how cruel and barbaric life in North Korea is for it's ordinary citizens.



The main people this book focuses on are:

* Dr. Kim: a very intelligent, independent female medical doctor, devoted to the ideology of North Korea but she grows disenchanted as many of her patients die from starvation and lack of medicine.

* Mrs. Song: a hardworking devoted wife and mother forced to extremes to feed her emaciated family during a multi-year famine that kills off one-fifth of North Korea's population.

* Oak-Hee: the oldest daughter of Ms. Song. Strong willed, outspoken and rebellious, she survives the harsh punishment of a gulag.

* Kim Hyuck: an orphan whose poor father is forced to abandon him to a state orphanage after he becomes homeless and can no longer feed, not just his son, but himself.

* Jun-Sang and Mi-Ran: Platonic but secret boyfriend and girlfriend who both harbor private suspicions about North Korea's ideology but neither divulge their fears out of deep-seated fear of brutal repercussions for speaking out against the state.

Through these five poignant interwoven stories of hardship, we are given a small glimpse of what life is like in this isolated, totalitarian, repressive nation. The stories of these people left me feeling shocked and horrified but also left me very grateful for my own life and the freedoms I enjoy.