In his accessible and refreshingly fair-minded new book, Andrei Lankov does a fine job of making sense of the world's most inscrutable state...it is a commanding overview of the country's politics and society, and a significant contribution to policy debates in the United States and South Korea.
International Affairs Journal
Lankov offers a nuanced picture of this secretive ... Read morecountry, drawing on his own experience and the North Koreans he has interviewed.
Clare Debenham, THE
[ The Real North Korea ] provides an extraordinary insight into a state that defies conventional categories of tyranny.
Oliver Kamm, The Times
This is the best all round account of North Korea yet.
Aidan Foster-Carter, Times Literary Supplement
[Lankov's] book is an important curative to the unhelpful gaggle of pundits who describe nuclear-armed North Korea as "irrational" or an impenetrable "black box"
Christian Oliver, Financial Times
There is no better road map in English than this wise, anecdotally rich and entertaining book.
Richard Lloyd Parry, The Times
Superb,.. An engaging blend of scholarship, reportage and memoir, offers striking details about daily life in a country reminiscent of George Orwell's '1984'.
new York Times Book Review
[A] probing, clear-eyed study Lankov's is one of the best and most accessible recent accounts of this seemingly outlandish nation.
Publishers Weekly
Show Less