![]() ![]() Kim soon discovers that the young men are nonetheless faithful “soldiers and slaves.” The book takes its title from their thrice-a-day ritual of marching in a double line around the school’s walled compound singing praises to then-ruler Kim Jong Il: Without you, there is no motherland. She went in 2011, when all universities in North Korea had been shut down for a year and the students sent to work in construction fields - except for the 270 students at PUST. ![]() ![]() Wanting a more sustained look at life inside the country, she took a job teaching English at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology ( PUST), which caters to the privileged sons of the country’s ruling elite. Around that time, she began traveling to North Korea on magazine assignments. ![]() Kim won acclaim a decade ago for her debut novel, The Interpreter. In Without You, There Is No Us, an account of her six-month teaching stint in North Korea, Kim has skillfully combined journalism with graceful language and the thoughtfulness of an essayist to create a work that resonates far beyond her personal experience. At a time when the memoir often struggles for literary respect, Suki Kim demonstrates just how powerful the genre can be in the hands of an abundantly talented writer. ![]()
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