This was excellent. It's a collection of short stories, written in the 1990s for the most part, by a North Korean author. The stories, although not the author, were eventually smuggled into South Korea and subsequently published, although of course publication has to be under a pseudonym (Bandi apparently means "firefly," with the connotation of light in darkness) to protect the life of the author. The stories themselves are grim and tragic things, illustrations of how the lives of ordinary people are destroyed by fascism. The man who can't get a travel pass to see his dying mother, the woman who is punished for taking care of her sick child instead of attending a parade, small children who have their prospects ruined because a relative has been convicted of some terrifyingly minor "crime"... things become so bleak, at some points, that the stories almost take on the patina of farce, but this is all too terrible to be a farce. And, sadly, I suspect it is all too realistic as well, and that Bandi, whoever he is, is writing from life - and for life. What an extraordinarily brave person he must be, to risk himself this way.