Flower Swallows Sing: A North Korean Memoir in Verse

"While North Korea is often portrayed in the Western media as a dark and dangerous monolith, Baek's poetry focuses on the humanity and agency of the North Korean people, engaging explicitly with themes of family, survival, and escape. Written from the unique perspective of a young teenage beggar living in a crumbling totalitarian state, Flower Swallows Sing traces Baek's navigation of her dual identity as a victim of an oppressive regime and as a world citizen- one who dreams, writes, and cares deeply for her communities"--