Star of the North
An explosive thriller set in North Korea
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4.7 • 6 Ratings
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- €5.99
Publisher Description
'Extraordinary...smart, sophisticated, suspenseful - and important. If you try one new thing this year, make it Star of the North' LEE CHILD
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North Korea and the USA are on the brink of war.
A young American woman disappears without trace from a South Korean island.
The CIA recruits her twin sister to uncover the truth.
Now, she must go undercover in the world’s most deadly state.
Only by infiltrating the dark heart of the terrifying regime will she be able to save her sister…and herself.
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‘Tense and compelling.’ James Swallow, Sunday Times bestselling author of NOMAD
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This clever, high-action thriller is written by one of the few Westerners to have visited North Korea—and it made us think that life in the isolated nation is even more shocking than we imagined. The story begins with the abduction of a Korean-American teenager by Kim Jong-il’s regime. It reveals a country rife with astonishing poverty, corruption and oppression, and delivers fascinating insights into the ruling class’s motivations. The author’s note—it’s full of spoilers so read it last—explains which parts of the book were inspired by real-life events; discovering just how much is founded in truth is as stunning as any of the plot twists.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This outstanding thriller from John (Flight from Berlin) brings to life the seldom-seen underbelly of North Korea, which the author visited in 2012. In 2010, Jenna (born Jee-min), an academic at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., joins the CIA in part to find her twin sister, Soo-min, whom North Korean commandos abducted off a South Korean island in 1998. Meanwhile, Cho Sang-ho, a lieutenant colonel in North Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs who knows about Pyongyang's kidnapping program (and many of the country's other dark episodes), travels on a diplomatic mission to New York. There, at a reception at the 21 Club, he meets Jenna, who tells him about Soo-min. Cho is initially unhelpful, but in the end he agrees to assist Jenna in her quest to locate her sister. As an undercover CIA agent, Jenna goes to North Korea, where she poses as a translator for a U.N. peace mission while engaging in a dangerous search for her sister. John excels at drawing the everyday details of life in a closed society the drug use of the lower classes, the paranoia and fear of those who have gained access to the upper ranks, the omnipotence of the Bowibu, the state security force. Those seeking a realistic, highly readable look at North Korea will be richly rewarded.
