My grandfather told me that love burns brighter than any star. – Sungju Lee

Before reading Sungju Lee’s Every Falling Star: The True Story of How I Survived and Escaped North Korea, I didn’t know much about North Korea, much less what it is like to grow up in a country that Lee describes as “a true-to-life dystopian nation.”  Lee’s story begins with his father teaching him war tactics at age six, lessons that will later save his life as he and his friends run from the police.

As a child young Sungju dreams of becoming an army general. His life in the capital city, Pyongyang, is one of relative luxury, with a nice apartment, a good education, and after-school tae kwon do lessons. He is taught to idolize his country’s leader, Kim Il-sung, and to fear South Korea and the United States.

When his father runs afoul of the government, the family is forced to leave town and settle in Gyeong-seong, a ghost town where there is little work and even less food. At school, Sungju soon learns just how dire life is away from the capital. His parents, and the parents of many of his classmates, leave home in search of food, and never return. Eventually, Sungju and his friends end up on the street, where Sungju will live for four years, forming a gang with his friends to hustle for money and steal food in order to survive. I don’t want to spoil the story of how Sungju escapes, but suffice it to say his story is very tragic as well as moving. The simple but haunting prose makes this a story appropriate for both adults and young adults.

Further reading:

Under the Same Sky: From Starvation in North Korea to Salvation in America, by Joseph Kim

A Thousand Miles to Freedom: My Escape from North Korea, by Ûn-ju Kim

North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors, by Daniel Tudor

In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom, by Yeonmi Park