The Accusation: Forbidden Stories From Inside North Korea

This month the Macclesfield Book group read ‘The Accusation’ – we were given 10 copies of the book via the Reading Agency. 'The Accusation' is a selection of short stories based on life in North Korea in the 1980’s and 1990’s. We all admitted it was not a book we would have usually read but we were intrigued to see what the book had to offer.

‘The Accusation’ written by an anonymous dissident known only under the pseudonym of ‘Bandi’ was smuggled out of North Korea (hidden inside a copy of ‘The selected works of Kim Il-sung’)The manuscript travelled to South Korea where it was translated and published in 17 languages. Readers all around the globe know the name of ‘Bandi’ but sadly Bandi has no idea if his manuscript made it out of the country.

Overall we enjoyed reading the book - seeing it as a fascinating insight into a culture we will never be witness too.

Here are a few thoughts from the Macclesfield Book Group:

‘a fear-inducing, dictatorial, brutal and conformist story of life in North Korea; You need to read this book it’s a real eye opener’

‘simple, moving and tragic stories about life in the North Korean dictatorship’

‘interesting insight to life in North Korea. Makes people glad to live in the West’

‘an amazing insight into a dark world where spying on family and friends is the norm’

‘how lucky we are to live in freedom’

‘hard to believe that people are still living under such a regime. It makes me feel lucky
to live in England’

‘tales from North Korea of everyday life and ordinary people’

‘I felt a deep sadness reading this book and yet I could not stop reading this book. I felt moved by every story and connected to every character’