Description
Description
Before she was named Nana by the French couple who adopted her as a child, she was Esther Pak, a girl growing up in a Korean orphanage. And before she was Esther Pak, she was Munju, a small child abandoned on the railway tracks in Seoul. Nana has no memories of the first three or four years of her life, no family records detailing the personal information of her parents, no birth certificate or any medical records from the hospital where she was born. She was abandoned on the railway tracks at a station in Seoul, where a train conductor saved her life and took her in for a year, before bringing her to an orphanage. Adopted by a French couple, she is now a playwright in Paris. The day she finds out she is pregnant with her first child, she receives an email from Seoyeong, a Korean filmmaker who wishes to make a documentary about her life. Nana accepts the offer, hoping to reconcile with her past as she prepares to become a mother. She travels to Seoul stays at the filmmaker's apartment. One night, during a power outage, Nana ventures to Bokhee's Kitchen, the restaurant on the ground floor, and befriends the woman who runs it. Soon, they develop a strong bond. But while Nana moves through Seoul, visiting the orphanage and the train station where she was abandoned thirty-five years ago, the woman everyone calls Bokhee has a stroke and is hospitalized--and her real name and past come to light. Simple Heart is a poignant and tender novel that delves into the lives of women from postwar to present, the bonds of love between women and children, and the difficult choices mothers have to make.
About the Author
About the Author
Cho Haejin was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1976. After earning a master's degree in Korean literature, she began her writing career in 2004 with the literary magazine Munye Joongang. Since then, her work has been recognized as testament to the existence and lives of those on the margins of Korean society and those forgotten by history, and have won several prominent literary awards in Korea, including the Shin Dong-yup Literary Award, Young Writer's Award, Lee Hyo-seok Literary Award, Hyungpyeong Literary Award, and Dong-in Literary Award. Simple Heart was the winner of both the Daesan Literary Award, a leading literary award in Korea, and the Kim Man-jung Literary Award, and has been published in eight countries. Her other novels include I Met Loh Kiwan, which was adapted to film under the title My Name is Loh Kiwan and released on Netflix in 2024. Jamie Chang is an award-winning literary translator. Her translation of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 was long-listed for the 2020 National Book Award for Translated Literature. She is the recipient of the Daesan Foundation Translation Grant and a three-time recipient of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea Grant. She lives in Ontario, Canada.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"Haejin's prose is soft and mysterious, with a drifting, almost Sebaldian quality...touching." --The New Yorker, Best Books of the Year So Far "The prose of this slim book is elegant and cool, deceptively simple in matters of the heart while building toward an emotional ending...A long legacy of war, dictatorship, public health, and poverty underpin this story, as does the presence of the American military and its men. But make no mistake--women, and their life-giving actions despite an unforgiving world, are at the heart of this book. With this English translation, author Cho has contributed to a wave of South Korean feminist fiction finding audiences around the world." --Globe and Mail "A reflective, tender story of a Korean adoptee who grew up in France and travels to Seoul when a filmmaker wants to make a documentary about her. Pregnant with her ex-boyfriend's baby, she begins to question family, immigration, identity, and belonging." --Ms. Magazine "For fans of movies Return to Seoul and Past Lives, as well as Kyung-Sook Shin's Please Look After Mom." --Electric Literature "[An] intricate, touching novel...The tone is lyrical and at times mystical...poignant." --Foreword Reviews "A stirring portrait of a young Korean French adoptee who, on the precipice of motherhood, is compelled to reach back into her past to search for her origins and the meaning of her Korean given name. A wise and elegant novel that explores belonging, memory, and the heartbreaking, complex history of international adoption in Korea with tenderness and grace." --Gina Chung, author of Sea Change and Green Frog "As much a portrait of the adoptee experience as a testament to 'other mothers' and chosen family, Simple Heart is by no means a simple story. In tracing an adoptee's search for those who once cared for her, it exposes the ways militarism, racism, and patriarchy dismantle even the most tender bonds. In the end, we are led to a universal truth: that it is our care for others that gives this fleeting life meaning. Profound and moving, this short novel is not one I will easily forget." --Hannah Michell, author of Excavations "What does it mean to belong--to a place, to a name, to yourself? Simple Heart is an extraordinary novel, written with unsparing clarity and luminous tenderness. Cho Haejin bears witness to lives marked by abandonment and silence, yet sustained by the smallest acts of kindness. The result is storytelling at once devastating and consoling--unsettling and unforgettable in its revelations about what it means to live on--and to belong. Deeply resonant. Utterly moving." --Yeji Y. Ham, author of The Invisible Hotel "Decades after being abandoned by her mother and taken in by a stranger, only to be given up for adoption overseas, Nana returns to South Korea to cast light on her origins. Far from a simple heart, Nana is possessed of a restive, searching, lonely, sometimes bitter but ultimately munificent heart, from which springs the deepest questions of childhood, motherhood, womanhood, and personhood. Cho Haejin's Simple Heart is a beautiful and intimate novel about all the ways family can be lost--and found." --Jack Wang, author of The Riveter "At its core, Simple Heart is a story of relationships--with ourselves, with family, and with strangers who may become friends, and even confidants. Cho's vivid world-building pulls readers deep into the pages, immersing them in a journey that stirs fear and sorrow, yet blossoms into love, acceptance, and hope. Moving and resonant, Simple Heart connects readers to other worlds and experiences--anything but simple, and unforgettable at heart." --Ann Y. K. Choi, author of All Things Under the Moon "Simple Heart is an astonishingly tender story of lost and found families. The novel's sharp clarity and quiet patience allow for memories, secrets, and hopes to blossom into profound self-knowledge. A moving work from a generous mind and a complex heart." --Vinh Nguyen, author of The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Other Press (NY)
Pub date:
2026-02-03
Length:
240 pages
The Allstora Membership
Membership Perks:
- Save 30% on all online store purchases
- Exclusive access to author's content
- You pay less, but authors still earn double
Membership Terms:
First Month:
$0.00
Monthly price:
$5.00
- To access membership discount simply log in and add to cart, discount applied automatically.
- One month free trial, cancel anytime. Membership renews on the 15th of each month.