“A tour de force of reporting . . . Chinoy clearly sympathizes with administration officials who favored engagement with North Korea. But he lets officials who wanted to isolate Pyongyang make their case. More than 100 people granted him interviews, and the list is a who's who of both senior and junior U.S. players on North Korea policy.”—Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post

"The mounting set of obstacles called forth a courage and fortitude that are likely the intended lessons for this book's young adult audience, as is her persistence, which is highlighted when her determination to learn English became her path back into the world."—Jane Ciabattari, The Washington Post Book World

"Fans of the absurdity and dark humor of Milan Kundera's portraits of life behind the Iron Curtain will appreciate these same elements in Ma Jian's work."—Alane Salierno Mason, The Baltimore Sun

"Guy Delisle is a wry 37-year-old French Canadian cartoonist whose work for a French animation studio requires him to oversee production at various Pacific Rim studios on the grim frontiers of free trade. His employer puts him up for months at a time in 'cold and soulless' hotel rooms where he suffers the usual maladies of the long-term boarder: cultural and linguistic alienation, boredom, and cravings for Western food and real coffee. Delisle depicts these sojourns into the heart of isolation in [the] brilliant graphic novel . . . Pyongyang."—Foreign Affairs