The author of this book moved to North Korea from Japan as a boy with his family, with the lure of a promised land. Instead they found a totalitarian nightmare. He then spent the next thirty odd years desperately trying to escape back to Japan. As compelling and harrowing as Masaji’s story is, the way this memoir is written, or perhaps translated, is not exactly riveting reading. It’s very dry and straightforward, with little insight into the author’s inner thoughts.