Books › Pyongyang › Books like it
If you loved
Books like Pyongyang
A wry, starkly drawn journey into the surreal and claustrophobic heart of a modern totalitarian state. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with Pyongyang.
- claustrophobic
- surreal
- sterile
- alienating
- quietly absurd
- 01
Chroniques birmanes
Guy Delisle
A wry, quietly observant graphic travelogue that finds the profound and the absurd in the daily rhythms of life under a military dictatorship.
- 02
Shenzhen
Guy Delisle
A wry, quietly lonely portrait of expatriate life in a rapidly changing, unfamiliar city.
- 03
The aquariums of Pyongyang
Chol-hwan Kang; Pierre Rigoulot
A harrowing, unvarnished testament to human endurance in the face of unimaginable totalitarian cruelty.
- 04
The Arab of the future
Riad Sattouf
A visually striking and candid graphic memoir that filters the chaos of political idealism and cultural displacement through the wide eyes of a nomadic child.
- 05
Rolling Blackouts
Sarah Glidden
A quietly devastating, watercolor-washed exploration of the ethics of journalism and the human echoes of war.
- 06
Nothing to envy
Barbara Demick · 2009
An intimate, devastating window into the quiet rebellions and daily survivals of people trapped in a modern Orwellian nightmare.
- 07
Every falling star
Sungju Lee
A harrowing, deeply moving testament to brotherhood and survival in a world stripped of safety.
- 08
Persepolis 1-4
Marjane Satrapi · 2007
A fiercely intimate, darkly funny, and deeply moving portrait of growing up rebellious in a world turned upside down.
- 09
L'Arabe du futur, tome 2
Riad Sattouf
A darkly funny, piercingly observant graphic memoir that filters the absurdities and brutalities of a Syrian childhood through a deceptively innocent lens.
- 10
The Fixer
Joe Sacco
A gritty, boots-on-the-ground descent into the moral gray zones of war reporting and the desperate hustle of survival.
- 11
In the Shadow of No Towers
Art Spiegelman · 2005
A frantic, visually explosive time capsule of post-9/11 paranoia and political fury.
- 12
Epileptic
David B.
A sprawling, heavily inked descent into the labyrinth of family trauma, where childhood illness takes the shape of literal monsters.
