The Aquariums of Pyongyang
Kang Chol-hwan and Pierre Rigoulot • 2001
Devastation Rating
political prisoner North Korea camps memoir
Our Take
Kang spent nine years in Camp 15 from the age of nine, imprisoned because his grandfather had displeased the regime. His testimony — precise, unembellished, all the more shattering for its restraint — was among the first detailed accounts of the North Korean camp system to reach the West. The title refers to a small act of private joy inside the camps. It is almost unbearable.
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