The front cover of Bandi’s The Accusation, a new collection of short stories, directs the imminent reader to hidden depths in the enigma that is North Korea. An image of a North Korean mural is torn in the middle to show the book’s title; the pseudonym for the writer; as well as the subtitle of the book, which reads: “Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea.” While the stories are fictional, the characters and circumstances Bandi describes are not part of a dystopian novel but rather real people of all classes and backgrounds in the oppressive society that he lives in.