Simple Heart

Nana is a playwright who was adopted from Korea to France. Unexpectedly pregnant, she decides to go to Seoul after an email from a Korean student, Seo-yeong, who wants to make a film about the search for the meaning of Mun-ju, the name Nana had before she was adopted. Over one summer Seo-yeong films the places of her early life: the tracks at Cheongnyangni station where she was abandoned and found, the home of the train driver who called her Mun-ju, and the orphanage in Incheon where she was Esther. Nana asks everyone she meets for their names and the meaning of Seoul's place names, and is cared for by the old woman who runs the restaurant below her room. The novel also brings to light the women of the camp towns near US bases.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

263 pages in the original

Genres

Migration, Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

South Korea

First published

2019 by Minumsa

Author's age

43 when first published

ISBN

9788937441943 (original)

9781635425819 (Other Press, United States)