The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story دختری با هفت اسم – فرار از کره شمالی

As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal totalitarian 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.

She could not return, since rumours of her escape were spreading, and she and her family could incur the punishments of the government authorities – involving imprisonment, torture, and possible public execution. Hyeonseo instead remained in China and rapidly learned Chinese in an effort to adapt and survive. Twelve years and two lifetimes later, she would return to the North Korean border in a daring mission to spirit her mother and brother to South Korea, on one of the most arduous, costly and dangerous journeys imaginable.

This is the unique story not only of Hyeonseo’s escape from the darkness into the light, but also of her coming of age, education and the resolve she found to rebuild her life – not once, but twice – first in China, then in South Korea. Strong, brave and eloquent, this memoir is a triumph of her remarkable spirit.

About Author:
Lee Hyeon-seo, best known for her book, The Girl with Seven Names, is a North Korean defector and activist who lives in Seoul, South Korea, where she is a student. She escaped from North Korea and later guided her family out of North Korea through China and Laos.

کتاب دختری با هفت اسم، اثری نوشته ی هیئون سئو لی است که نخستین بار در سال 2015 به چاپ رسید. هیئون به عنوان کودکی که در کره ی شمالی بزرگ می شد، یکی از میلیون ها نفری به حساب می آمد که در دنیای تحت حکومت رژیمی تمامیت طلب گیر افتاده بود. خانه ی آن ها در نزدیکی مرز چین واقع شده بود و همین موضوع، فرصت های اندکی به هیئون می داد تا بتواند نگاهی هرچند محدود به جهان ورای مرزهای کشور منزوی خود بیندازد. همزمان با قحطی بزرگ دهه ی 1990، هیئون شروع به فکر کردن و سوال پرسیدن کرد و درنهایت به این نتیجه رسید که در تمام عمر، او و امثال او را شستشوی مغزی داده بوده اند. هیئون با نگاه به سرکوب، فقر و گرسنگی مردم دریافت که کشورش مطمئنا نمی تواند همان طور که حکومت ادعا می کند، بهترین کشور بر روی زمین باشد. هیئون در هفده سالگی تصمیم گرفت که از کره ی شمالی بگریزد اما هرگز تصور نمی کرد که دوازده سال طول خواهد کشید تا دوباره در کنار خانواده اش زندگی کند

درباره نویسنده:
هیئون سئو لی، زاده ی سال 1980، فعال سیاسی-اجتماعی و نویسنده ای اهل کره ی شمالی است که اکنون در سئول زندگی می کند. او از کره ی شمالی گریخت و پس از مدتی به خانواده ی خود نیز کمک کرد تا از طریق چین و لائوس از آن کشور فرار کنند.