demick uses the lives of five defectors to weave together a startlingly vivid tapestry of life in north korea, from social cultures, to economic life, to the trickle down effects of politics onto the day-to-days of the population. we meet mi-ran and jun-sang, a young couple who meet in secret in the unlit streets for the duration of their relationship, kept apart not just by the prohibition of premarital relationships, but their differing songbun and caste, due to mi-ran's father being a former south korean POW. mrs song, an 'ideal' north korean woman, who slowly becomes disillusioned by the regime as she loses more and more to her life to the famine. dr kim, who helplessly watches as children in her pediatric ward waste away. and kim hyuck, a young boy fighting through his own starvation and various labour camps so he can grip onto survival amidst the regime. what is most interesting is finding the moment that each person decided to defect -- or, in a case such as mrs song's, decided not to return to north korea. the common factor appears to be gaining awareness of the external world. once their worlds expanded outside the walls of their north korean television channels and government-issued housing and the inescapable deification of kim il-sung, they realised that the paternalistic role that the regime was trying to push was not as much to their best interests as they were forced to believe. and, in incredibly courageous moves, these defectors let go of their lifetime of beliefs of governmental protection and propaganda to take their lives into their own hands and find their freedoms. a very detailed and emotional account, though i wish more attention was given to the politics!