It’s only natural to expect people in the U.S. to be fascinated by — and a little wary of — news out of North Korea. The Hermit Kingdom has become our new boogeyman, replacing China and Russia as the focus of our Red Scare. But given the United States’ near-total lack of communication with the other country, the bulk of our narratives about North Korea come from outsiders, from imaginative novelists and traveling teachers, or from defectors who have successfully found asylum elsewhere. All of this warrants saying, because all of this is necessary for readers to understand just how unique The Accusation, the first foreign-published book by a North Korean author living in North Korea — in this case, Bandi — is. There’s no other short-story collection like it in the world. Continue reading →