Star of the North

This timely and compelling thriller by D.B. John (see my post on another book of his that I read, Flight from Berlin) is set largely in North Korea during the rule of Kim Jong Il. The book opens with the kidnapping of a college-age couple by North Korean operatives from a beach in South Korea. Because they were taken aboard a submarine, no information turns up from the usual search and surveillance methods, and the two are eventually presumed drowned. The young woman's twin sister, Jenna--both of them are half Korean-American and half African-American--has never fully accepted her sister's death. Jenna's grief over her missing twin is compounded by her father drinking himself to death after the disappearance, and she has languished in her pursuit of an academic career. Nearly 12 years later, Jenna is tapped by the CIA to participate in talks with the North Koreans and suddenly she has hope that she might be able to find out more about the disappearance of her sister. Her story is interwoven with narratives from the perspective of two North Koreans. One is a poor village woman who finds a propaganda balloon in the forest (which she must by law turn over to the authorities) filled with food and other contraband. She takes a risk and opens a stall in the black market area of the train station with what she's found. The other voice is a high ranking Korean official whose English language skills tap him to be one of the diplomatic party being sent to Washington, D.C. for talks. The characterizations of daily life for ordinary citizens, the inner circle of the regime, and prisoners in the labor camps are all based upon accounts from those who have escaped or defected. Like the descriptions in The Orphan Master's Son, these are often painful to read. The government's deceit and manipulation of its own citizens as well as the rest of the world is a sobering reminder of what we're dealing with in our current negotiations with North Korea. Reviews from Publishers Weekly, the Washington Post, and Kirkus.