Dear Leader: North Korea’s senior propagandist exposes shocking truths behind the regime
Jang Jin-Sung (Ebury)
*****
Book buff
Jang Jin-sung lifts opens the black box that is North Korean politics through accounts of his personal involvement with the Kim Jong-il regime. Working under the aptly named Propaganda and Agitation Department, he was tasked to invent South Korean literature that praised the Kim-ruled North. His own agitation leads him to an act which in the West would result in an overdue library book fine, but in his native North Korea is punishable by death. It’s Winston Smith from Orwell’s 1984 reincarnated in East Asia.
- Vuyo Mzini @vuyomzini
The Wolf in Winter
John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton)
***
Book thrill
John Connolly weaves such a colourful web of romance and melancholy, horror and humour, it is difficult to categorise his books: thrillers with occult overtones? Detective stories with a tragic hero? In this, his 12th outing, private investigator Charlie Parker discovers that Jude, a homeless man who has just been murdered, intended to hire him to find his missing daughter. The gross-out factor in Charlie’s dealings with Cambion the Leper, his relationship with the Collector, and the Cassandra-like appearances of his daughter’s ghost, may have reached their sell-by date.
- Aubrey Paton @AubreyPaton
The Fever
Megan Abbott (Picador)
****
Book fling
Abbott writes chilling high-school noir that generates a deep fear of meeting a teen in a dark alley. This time the focus is on Deenie Nash, a American teen living in Small Town, USA. She has issues: her mother left her and her older brother Eli to live in the big city. She also has besties: the ugly-duckling-turned-swan Lisa and the wiser-than-her-years Gabby. After Lisa has a seizure in class, and more of Deenie’s pals become inexplicably and violently ill, a wave of hysteria hits the town. Whatever the true cause, it all boils down to the consequences of trying to deal with young women’s sexuality.
- Jennifer Platt @Jenniferdplatt
Book details
- Dear Leader: North Korea’s senior propagandist exposes shocking truths behind the regime by Jang Jin-sung
EAN: 9781846044205
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- The Wolf in Winter by John Connolly
EAN: 9781444755336
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- The Fever by Megan Abbott
EAN: 9780316231053
Find this book with BOOK Finder!