Description

Uniform was an useless husk of the woman, damaged from rising up in another of Northern Korea’s forced-labour camps, before she achieved Illinois-sunlight within an orphanage. A mathematical genius, she's learned to handle discomfort by retreating right into a world of measurements and figures, a getaway from both current and previous. Gi becomes enamored of the bold and glowing Il-sun, a buddy she explains as “all lady and springtime.” But Il-sun’s quest of a much better existence imperils both women when her suitor tones them over the Demilitarized Zone and offers them as sex workers, initially in South Korea and subsequently in the United States.This hypnotic introduction, similar to Memoirs of a Geisha, depicts—with relaxing accuracy—life behind North Korea’s metal curtain. But for Gi and Il-sun, pressured in to the underworld of human-trafficking, their captivity outside North Korea is much crueler compared to restricted control of the “Dear Leader.” Tenderhearted Gi, simply on the brink of womanhood, is directed to a fate that threatens not just her body but her brain.