The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Tale: A North Korean Defector’s Story Hardcover – Illustrated, 2 July 2015

I don't think I've encountered such an emotionally moving book, more than a few times I've verbally said 'oh no...' before something bad happens and dreaded to read on, but unable to resist. It's so incredibly heartbreaking and yet enlightening to hear about the terrors of the North Korean regime from a woman who was once loyal to it, only to realise the truth about her country and escape. Genuinely, every person NEEDS to read this book because it will make you feel so incredibly lucky to be living a free life, safe from starvation, torture and oppression. This is the only book that gives me butterflies because it it so tense and nerve wracking. She and her biographer took me on a rollercoaster of hopefullness and hopelessness, and I have an undying respect for this amazing woman after hearing her story unlike any other.

A very well written book which exposes some of the difficulties faced by the poor inhabitants of North Korea as well as the problems of anyone trying to escape from the regime. Hyeon Seo Lee has had more ups and downs in her young life than most of us have during three times her time on the planet. The whole book kept me enthralled throughout and due to the fairly short chapters was easy to pick up and put down without losing track of what had already gone. I knew little about Korea, North or South until I read this book and it has now led me to read a bit more about the peninsula and the origins of the difficulties between the North and South. A very good read and one I would recommend to anyone with a thir4st for knowledge.

Hyeonsea Lee was a young girl living and growing up in North Korea under a very strict regime and witnessing some dreadful and unspeakable acts against humanity. In 1990 when famine hits her country, this brave lady, aged only 17 decides to escape, knowing she is taking a huge risk into the unknown coupled with the harsh reality that she may never see her mother or brother again. Reading this extraordinary book as Hyeonsea takes us on her journey I can only say that I highly recommend this very interesting and poignant novel.

‘The Girl with Seven Names’ is the story of a girl who grows up in North Korea believing that it is the greatest nation in the world.The story tells of her childhood living a relatively comfortable life by North Korean standards. However when famine strikes in the 1990s, she begins to notice what was happening to her people.When she was 17 almost as an adventure she risks crossing to China across a frozen river. She then realises that if she returned it would cause massive problems for her family so she remains in China.Slowly she also understands that her country is run by a brutal, totalitarian regime. The book then tells of her struggles to adapt and survive in China living largely as an illegal immigrant and then her flight to South Korea.Finally the book tells of her efforts to get her mother and brother to escape and live in South Korea too.Hyeonseo obviously showed immense strength and bravery, overcoming often life-threatening challenges to enable herself, her mother and brother to escape.However all three of them, her mother especially, struggle with living in South Korea and miss ‘home’.I loved Hyeonseo’s descriptions of day to day life in N Korea and her accounts of her flight to freedom. However I did sometimes get frustrated with her choices and believe although she was strong and brave she was also amazingly lucky at times.Nevertheless a brilliant and thought- provoking book. I would thoroughly recommend it.Hyeonseo now speaks out about the darkness and repression of the North Korean regime around the world.

This book, had it not dealt with North Korea and the sensitivity this country arouses, should have by now been made into a film. Intrigue, serendipity, tragedy, despair and lots of varied visual images (from the bleakness of communist Korea to 21st century capitalist Shanghai) - it has all these in abundance. At one point I asked myself if it could be true - only to be reminded of my own experiences in a developing country where I had to resort to smuggling out currency and illegally applying for an extension to my visa to facilitate this. As a linguist I must also highlight the brilliant translation - it is word-perfect with some spectacularly chosen phrases (illuminated neon signs high up on buildings at night in modern-day China described as (if I recall rightly) 'atolls of light in a sea of darkness'. Perhaps the Winter Olympic Games of 2018 may produce a thaw (pun unintended) in the North-South relationship. Then let's see this brought to the big screen.

I was made aware of this book after reading a short summary in The Sunday Times. This is the true account of the defection of a North Korean teenager and her remarkable journey through China and eventually into South Korea. The courage and strength she demonstrated was nothing short of astounding. She then went on to manage the escape of her family single handed. This in itself was a compelling account of selfless bravery and determination, but given that her life prior to these events had been severely restricted in terms of individual thought or deed under a brutal dictatorship, she achieved these feats singularly ill equipped to do so.

This story was sad,moving and made even sadder by the fact it was all real and the dictatorship is in place even today.It inspires bravery,and the narrator is an amazing woman.I can relate to it in a way,my family coming from a once beautiful but broken country with a strong dictatorship and follerwers of an oppressive regime,just like North Korea.This novel makes me think of how spoilt I am in terms of otherr unfortunate people and what true bravery in its purest form is.On top of the moving story,the author writes in a lovely,quirky style.An incredible book that MUST be read.