Book info

• Title The Girl with Seven Names
• Author Hyeonseo Lee
• Year 2014
• Genre Memoir

As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and to realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told 'the best on the planet'? Aged seventeen, she decided to escape North Korea. She could not have imagined that it would be twelve years before she was reunited with her family.

Thoughts

I wasn’t aware of the TED talk that brought the author into the public, but having read the book, I’m keen to seek it out. It’s an incredible tale of bravery amidst chaos, of losing your identity in the search for a better life, and of family loyalties and impossible choices. It’s really a heart-wrenching story from start to finish - that there are countries in the world like this, that those looking for help get ripped off at every turn, and that the end result isn’t a wonderful happy ending but just another step along a journey of huge adjustment.

There are moments in the book of greatness though, of uplifting spirit. The kindness of complete strangers, whether it is in not telling tales, or giving money when it’s most needed, is always wonderful to read about.

It’s a difficult read but it’s a story that ends with optimism, and considering the events that unfold during the telling of it, that’s quite a feat of human endurance.

Rating: 4 / 5