Summary of Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:#1 North Korea is a country that has fallen out of the developed world.

The country is covered in darkness, which is something that teenagers love.#2 In the late 1990s, North Koreans would meet in the dark to escape the prying eyes of the authorities.

The girl would lead her boyfriend to a hot-spring resort outside of town, where the grounds were poorly maintained but the trees were still beautiful.#3 When I met Mi-ran, she was a 31-year old woman living in South Korea.

She had defected six years earlier. I wanted to know what life was like for defectors in North Korea, so I interviewed her.#4 In 2004, Mi-ran was a kindergarten teacher in a mining town in North Korea.

She was working toward a graduate degree in education.

She had a dream about her boyfriend, a South Korean civilian military employee, who had married her the previous year.