I’ve read a few books – novels and one memoir – set in and around North Korea but this is probably the one that offers the most detail of life in North Korea. While there’s likely no way to know how accurate some of these details are, Shin does an excellent job of evoking life behind these borders.
The Last Exiles follows two young people at university in Pyongyang. Suja comes from the city and lives a relatively privileged and sheltered life. She dreams of pursuing journalism, like her father, and working for the national newspaper. Jin is a scholarship student, coming from a poor village far outside of the city. When they fall in love, their future together seems bright. But on a visit home, Jin makes a sudden decision that changes both of their lives.
I think there’s something about North Korea and the secretive, restricted life there that fascinates many of us in the Western world. It’s hard to imagine quite what it would be like to grow up in such a place. Both Jin and Suja have lived their whole lives with only North Korean media sources and, until recently, have had no reason to question the official stance on life and the world. As the story progresses, both Jin and Suja begin to question the way the world around them really works and the truth of the things they’ve always been told.
The main problem I had with The Last Exiles is that the balance between action and personal development isn’t quite there. Jin and Suja meet and fall in love relatively quickly but I was never really convinced of the great affection between them. There isn’t much chemistry on the page and certainly not enough to entail some of the huge sacrifices made. They also both go through huge idealogical changes that seem to come a little too simply. Too much happens too quickly and I was left feeling like I’d been told a story, not feeling like I’d experienced it along with the characters.
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