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4.0 

The Accusation

By Bandi & Deborah Smith
The Accusation by Bandi & Deborah Smith digital book - Fable

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Publisher Description

A PEN Translates Award-winning collection of short stories about life in North Korea under Kim Jong-Il, written in secret by a dissident author.

The Accusation is a revelatory work of fiction that exposes the truth of the North Korean regime. Set during the period of Kim Jong-Il’s leadership, the seven stories that make up The Accusation throw light on different aspects of life in this most bizarre and horrifying of dictatorships.

One story, “Life of a Swift Seed,” tells of a war hero and former ardent Communist who plants an elm tree in his back garden to commemorate one of his brothers-in-arms. When the tree is to be cut down to make way for a power line, the man is ready to defend it with his life, leaving a family friend to decide whether to intercede. In another story, “City of Specters,” a Pyongyang mother’s young son misbehaves during a party rally, crying out when he sees a portrait of Karl Marx, whom he thinks is a monster of Korean myth known as the Eobi. In one other story, a mother attempts to feed her husband during the worst years of North Korea’s famine, and in another, a woman in a perilous situation meets the Dear Leader himself.

As a whole, The Accusation is a vivid and frightening portrait of what it means to live in a completely closed-off society, and a heartbreaking yet hopeful portrayal of the humanity that persists even in such dire circumstances.

“Searing fiction by an anonymous dissident . . . A fierce indictment of life in the totalitarian North.”—New York Times

199 Reviews

4.0
“The portrayal of the N Korean institutions does well in creating an environment that welcomes hopeless, depressing short stories. As for the character introductions, I didn’t feel like I had a chance to connect with their complex personalities, as it sometimes felt like they only existed within the role they fulfill, ironically enough. This was a hard collection to review. This book was fairly straightforward to digest. The plot, or perhaps the translation, felt simplistic to the point of observing a black & white picture. The common antagonists left me accepting their trials and desperation without much question as to why. While their challenges can incite sympathy or pity, I didn’t always have this desired response. However, passivity or apathy may still an appropriate reaction.”

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