The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee

Copyright: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Hyeonseo Lee, a North Korean defector, writes about life under one of the harshest dictatorships.

Her life in North Korea, as described in the early chapters (the ones about her life in North Korea) is so similar to the lives of the people in George Orwell's 1984: friends and neighbors rat out on each other when they are suspicious of each other's loyalty to the Dear Leader and the Great Leader; the regime forces its citizens to always be in the company of other people to keep them from having individualistic and private lives; food and resources are dwindling, yet the government consistently feeds them propaganda that they are the greatest and richest nation in the world.

Hyeonseo Lee is a courageous, adaptable, and resilient woman, sharing her fascinating story of escape to China, and eventually, to South Korea.