The Last Exiles

Shin’s suspenseful debut sets an adventurous love story against the backdrop of North Korea’s authoritarian government during the last years of Kim Jong-il’s reign. Suja, a young North Korean girl whose father works for the government newspaper and gets her a photography internship there, has become enamored of Jin, a country boy from the impoverished town of Yangdook whom she met at Kim Il-sung University. On a school break, Jin steals cornmeal for his starving family—a treasonable offense—and is condemned to a prison camp, from which he escapes. Suja, hearing the news of his miraculous breakout at her father’s newspaper office, determines to find him. Shin, a poet and filmmaker who has documented the hardships of North Korean defectors, brings veracity to the fast-paced story, revealing the harsh circumstances of life in North Korea, the bargains some make in order to escape their homeland, such as their complicity in the black market for human trafficking, and the bleak and sometimes frightening conditions facing them as they near the border with China. With taut pacing and rich prose, Shin provides a revelatory view on a system of underground brokers who aid defectors, but also fuel indentured servitude in China. The many layers make for a moving and powerful story. (Apr.)