Without You There is No Us by Suki Kim

This book was the book that the Iowa City read as a community this fall.  It is a first hand account of a woman of South Korean ancestry who worked in North Korea as a teacher.  You might think that as a journalist she was bent on exposing the seedy underbelly of a totalitarian dictatorship, that she would convey her experience in a very unflattering light in order to reinforce what our preconceived notions are.  And some of that does happen but the overwhelming take away message that came through for me is that of just how sad a country it is.  Kim is teaching the children of the North Korean elite, the best of the best in the north, and they are hopelessly behind the times.  They have absolutely no concept of what the world outside their borders holds.  Their world view is provincial to the point of being almost unbelievable, and Kim does an excellent job of making it believable to us.  A very eye opening read.