The Red Years

Reviews / Votes

As a collection of poems by an anonymous North Korean dissident sees the light here for the first time, Katie Law learns the extraordinary story of how he risked his life to smuggle his work out of the country ... The Red Years, a slim volume of 51 short poems, makes for pretty depressing reading, the brutality of life under Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il expressed even more crudely than in the stories. * Evening Standard * In 'The Red Years', we are shown the possibility of this kind of communal solidarity persisting. The collection, then, is a fragment of this private enclave - the ardent defense of an interiority unbroken by propaganda. * NK News * Powerful insights into a world behind walls. * Praise for Bandi's The Accusation, Guardian * Courageous and confounding ... It's a quiet privilege to be given access to the voiceless by listening to such vivid and uncompromised storytelling. * Praise for Bandi's The Accusation, New Statesman * A fierce indictment of life in the totalitarian North. * Praise for Bandi's The Accusation, New York Times * Spare, direct, unflinching and bitterly angry. * Praise for Bandi's The Accusation, Observer * Bandi [presents] a world in which North Koreans are nuanced: broken-hearted, idealistic, still full of life. * Praise for Bandi's The Accusation, Times Literary Supplement * Its very existence is still a hopeful symbol that change is inevitable, if not imminent. * Praise for Bandi's The Accusation, Vice * Fascinating and chilling. Heartfelt and heartbreaking. * Praise for Bandi's The Accusation, Margaret Atwood *