The Deckled Edge

The first half of this book is quite good. It follows the life of an orphan master's son as he grows up in North Korea. How he comes to work in intelligence, his rise in the ranks, then his eventual fall into the grinding machine of the regime. It's a very bleak and realistic look inside the reclusive country.

*sleight spoiler alert* The second half is rather odd. The main character escapes from a labor camp and literally assumes the identity of one of the most famous people in the country. There is also the addition of another narrative voice, an interrogator, as well as several chronological jumps before and after the disappearance of the North Korea's most famous actress and her children. The whole second half of the book thus felt like a far-fetched and overly dramatic movie