Comics & Graphic Novels Literary
Pyongyang
A Journey in North Korea
- Publisher
- Drawn & Quarterly
- Initial publish date
- Oct 2018
- Category
- Literary, Far East
- Recommended Age
- 14 to 18
- Recommended Grade
- 9 to 12
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781770463370
- Publish Date
- Oct 2018
- List Price
- $21.95
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781896597898
- Publish Date
- Sep 2005
- List Price
- $24.95
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781897299210
- Publish Date
- May 2007
- List Price
- $16.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
The perennial graphic novel about a “hermit country,” with a new cover and an introduction by Gore Verbinski
Guy Delisle’s Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea is the graphic novel that made his career, an international bestseller for more than ten years. Delisle became one of the few Westerners to be allowed access to the fortress-like country when he was working in animation for a French company.
While living in the nation’s capital for two months on a work visa, Delisle observed everything he was allowed to see of the culture and lives of the few North Koreans he encountered, bringing a sardonic and skeptical perspective on a place rife with propaganda. As a guide to the country, Delisle is a non-believer with a keen eye for the humor and tragedy of dictatorial whims, expressed in looming architecture and tiny, omnipresent photos of the president. The absurd vagaries of everyday life become fodder for a frustrated animator’s musings as boredom and censorship sink in. Delisle himself is the ideal foil for North Korean spin, the grumpy outsider who brought a copy of George Orwell’s 1984 with him into the totalitarian nation.
Pyongyang is an informative, personal, and accessible look at a dangerous and enigmatic country.
About the authors
Helge Dascher has for 25 years translated texts with a dynamic relationship to images. A background in art history and literature has grounded her translation of over sixty graphic novels, many by artists who have broadened the medium's storytelling range. Her translations included acclaimed titles such as Julie Delporte's This Woman's Work (co-translated with Aleshia Jensen, Drawn and Quarterly, 2019), Sophie Bédard's Lonely Boys (co-translated with Robin Lang, Pow Pow Press, 2020) and Michel Rabagliati's "Paul" books (Drawn and Quarterly, Conundrum). She also translates exhibitions, digital stories, and films, most recently Theodor Ushev's The Physics of Sorrow (with Karen Houle, NFB, 2019). A Montrealer, she works from French and German to English.
Editorial Reviews
"Delisle chronicles the surreal nature of this hidden city filled with NGO workers, diplomats and a total absence of, say, dissidents and disabled people." -Rolling Stone
"A rare first-hand look at life inside North Korea." -The New York Review of Books
"Pyongyang [is] a quick read. Yet it repays careful scrutiny." -The Guardian
