The Orphan Master's Son is a fictional book about North Korea, but where North Korea is concerned, it's hard to separate fact from fiction in the first place. If we didn't already know that North Korea was a crazy, messed-up place, we'd almost think this was some scary, dystopian sci-fi novel set on another planet.

Yeah, welcome to the DPRK. That's the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name for itself. As you may have guessed, there's not much that's democratic about it, nor is it really a republic, nor does it really belong to people, so… nice try there, we guess.

We know North Korea as a society hidden from the eyes of the world and ruled by the crazy, brutal ideologies of the totalitarian Kim regime. It's a place where only the agenda and desires of the state matter; there's no room for individuality or self-determination. Propaganda blares from loudspeakers installed in every household, and citizens whose lives don't conform to the official script find themselves in very hot water.

(Or, if you've seen Team America, in a pool of sharks, but we digress.)

Author Adam Johnson has said that he was captivated by North Korea and its stories because he felt that the DPRK must be "...the most difficult place on earth to be fully human, a place where spontaneity is almost impossible--where confessing your heart and your wants and desires run counter to the state and could get you in trouble" (source).

Johnson's own visit to North Korea—though strictly monitored—and his years of research and reflection on life under the totalitarian Kim regime reinforced his ideas about how hard it must be to live as a North Korean citizen, and this became the driving idea behind this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (source).

Johnson gives life to the individual narratives that must exist in North Korea but can never be realized or even acknowledged under the oppressive regime. He chooses an orphan, Pak Jun Do, as his point of entry into this tightly controlled society. It's through this character that we get a sense of what life might be for a citizen who does his best to conform to official expectations—but who still suffers from the whims of an egomaniacal leader.

Jun Do's growing awareness of the world outside of North Korea complicates his understanding of his own government and makes it difficult for him to ignore the fact that he and his countrymen are living half-lives: they don't have ambitions, they don't have a sense of what they truly desire, and they don't know what it means to be free. Jun Do's encounter with the beautiful national actress Sun Moon awakens in him a sense of purpose and a desire to fight against Crazy Kim—that's Kim Jong Il, of course—who wants to control every detail of his subjects' existence, including their identities.

Johnson doesn't shy away from showing us the suffering that's part and parcel of Jun Do's life. We're talking starvation, torture, loneliness, imprisonment, betrayal, and the pain of witnessing brutality in every aspect of existence. Because we care about Jun Do and others, we're compelled to keep reading, despite the difficulties these characters face. By using fiction to show us what reality is like for 24 million North Koreans, Johnson coaxes us into experiencing, in a way, what no one would ever willingly want to endure.

While we at Shmoop were busy Shmoopsplaining The Orphan Master's Son for you, a bunch of fantastic news stories have surfaced concerning North Korea. We've recently learned that North Korean scientists have discovered the cure for AIDS and Ebola (LOL, btw); that North Korea is continuing to build long-range weaponry; and—worst of all—that North Korea has banned the use of Instagram.

Clearly, the world is waking up even more to the bizarre and desperate place created by Kim Il Sung and his successors.

We know, too, that the outlandish cruelty of the Kim regime continues in spectacular fashion under Kim Jong-un, son of the Dear Leader Kim Jong Il. We're told this new head honcho actually executed his own uncle (and possibly this uncle's family members) for being a traitor.

If these headlines make North Korea sound like a bad sci-fi flick, it's not without reason. The centralized government scripts just about every aspect of life within its borders.

…Except for the things it can't script, that is. We're now getting a steady flow of stories from people who've defected from North Korea—some of whom were born in the notorious though poorly documented prison camps. We've learned with certainty that it's a place where human rights abuses abound and where most citizens lack access to basics like clean water, sufficient food, and electricity. The people of North Korea have died by the millions for want of these things.

Yet we still know so little about what it means to be a citizen of North Korea. While more and more foreigners are being allowed to visit (hey, the country needs $$$), they are strictly watched by official representatives and are not allowed to speak openly to average citizens. Books like The Orphan Master's Son give us a sense of what we might learn if we keep North Korea on our radar (a technology North Korea perhaps actually has… but don't quote us on that).