Simple Heart - by Cho Haejin (Paperback)

About the Book

"In this moving exploration of dual identities reminiscent of Past Lives, a Korean writer's pregnancy raises questions about her own childhood abandonment. Nana, a Korean playwright, was adopted as a child by a French couple. Before she was Nana, she was Esther Pak, a girl growing up in a Korean orphanage. And before she was Esther Pak, she was Munju, an infant abandoned on the railway tracks of Cheongnyangni station in Seoul. Pregnant with the child of her ex-boyfriend, Nana receives a request from a Korean filmmaker who wishes to make a documentary about her life. Following a sudden compulsion to learn more about her own roots, she heads to Seoul as she prepares to bring a new life into the world. There, through unexpected encounters, the dark threads of her memory gradually begin to unravel. Simple Heart delves into profound questions about identity and belonging, with a focus on family connections and motherhood that recalls Kyung-Sook Shin's Please Look After Mother. It also shines a necessary light on issues such as international adoption and the historic US military presence in Korea"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

In this moving exploration of dual identities reminiscent of Past Lives, a writer's pregnancy raises questions about her own childhood abandonment.

Nana, a Korean-born playwright, was adopted as a child and raised in France by her adoptive parents. Pregnant with the child of her ex-boyfriend, Nana receives a request from a Korean filmmaker who wishes to make a documentary about her life. Following a sudden compulsion to learn more about her roots, she heads to Seoul as she prepares to bring a new life into the world. There, through unexpected encounters, the dark threads of her memory gradually begin to unravel.

Simple Heart delves into profound questions about identity and belonging, with a focus on family connections and motherhood that recalls Kyung-Sook Shin's Please Look After Mom. It also shines a necessary light on issues such as international adoption and the historic US military presence in Korea.

Review Quotes

"[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

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.