Simple Heart #BookTober Available 2/3/26

Simple Heart

About The Book:

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. It also shines a necessary light on issues such as international adoption and the historic US military presence in Korea.

About the Author:

Cho Haejin is the recipient of several literary awards, including the Shin Dong-yup Prize for Literature, the Yi Sang Literary Award, and the Hyeongpyeong Literary Prize. Her novels are celebrated for bearing witness to the lives of those on the margins of Korean society: people with disabilities, foreigners, North Korean defectors, and overseas adoptees. She won Korea’s prestigious Daesan Literary Award for Simple Heart.

About the Translator:

Jamie Chang is an award-winning literary translator. 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.

Check out this book and others at Other Press online.

~Hayley

Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. I have used direct text from the website of the company/product I am promoting to facilitate in my review.