| The author is a professional; he teaches creative writing at Stanford University. And of course he writes himself. But this book caused quite a stir overseas. Published in the end of 2012, it managed to win four prestigious fiction awards by summer 2013. The most prominent of them – the Pulitzer Prize. What’s the secret? The scene. Johnson caught the trend. He visited North Korea – as a tourist of course. And he was so much impressed that he couldn’t hold back his imagination. As a result he created the anti-utopia about “a little man” who at first becomes the engine of the totalitarian system and then – as it should be in a novel – he ventures a revolt. The secret of the popularity is in the shocking realities – tortures, violence, poverty… What’s really going on out there, in the camp of the triumphant Juche, Americans know even worse than we. But it’s fresh and catching."All week, expired ration cards may be used to gain admittance to matinee opera performances"... The book has just arrived from the printing house, but our wakeful bloggers already managed to write that it’s the order of “their” State Department – on a long view. It’s a great publicity for a book. |