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    The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story
    The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story
    The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story

    Written by Hyeonseo Lee and David John

    Narrated by Josie Dunn

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

    An extraordinary insight into life under one of the world’s most ruthless and secretive dictatorships – and the story of one woman’s terrifying struggle to avoid capture/repatriation and guide her family to freedom.

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateJul 2, 2015
    ISBN9780007595709

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    Reviews for The Girl with Seven Names

    4.5/5

    604 ratings40 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Learned a lot about living in North Korea and the different Asian cultures. Captivating memoir of a very determined brave young woman.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book so much. There were no slow parts and beautiful ending.
    • 5/5
      I was at the edge of my seat the whole time
    • 5/5
      Everybody should read this book. It's a hard book to read, but it's very necessary. This book had my blood boiling all the time. Not only because of the North Korean regime but because of the border policies, inmigration and human rights. And how unfair everything still is, to this day.
      I loved how Hyeonseo Lee shared her culture, her story and her daily life with us so we could understand it despite being such a different culture so far from ours.
    • 5/5
      Awesome I absolutely loved it. It kept me on the edge of my seat
    • 5/5
      Every American needs to know her story. This is a great book
    • 5/5
      This is an amazing and inspirational memoir. It gives the reader a glimpse of what life is like in North Korea, and how the people there see it as normal. Some of her stories about her childhood were haunting. I loved seeing her grow into a confident, independent, and quick witted woman.
    • 5/5
      It's beautiful book. Narrated well. This is journey of struggle and North Korean oppression. Listen to it. You'll start valuing your life and the things you take for granted. Highly. Highly. Highly. Recommended
    • 5/5
      What a powerful and captivating story. Left me in tears of joy
    • 5/5
      It the second time I’ve picked up this book. I marvel at the intelligence and wits of Hyeonseo and realise I would never be able to survive as she did. Being the same age I try to recall my events in life when I hear a date in the story. It’s an amazing story/ journey, I hope I don’t sound disrespectful. Must read for anyone that is lucky enough to be born in a country with human rights and welfare.
    • 5/5
      Best memoir I’ve ever read. Great narration! Very well written.
    • 5/5
      What an incredible story of resilience and determination that this middle-aged American woman cannot even comprehend!
    • 5/5
      Wonderful read! Very informative and eye-opening to the struggles of the North Korean people.
    • 5/5
      The Girl With Seven Names is the remarkable memoir of Hyeonseo Lee, born in 1981 or 1982 in North Korea who fled her country in 1997. Lineage expells her biological father very soon. Family, connections and social position are very important in North Korea. Her mother raised Lee en her half-brother. Life's not easy for this family and a set of uncles and aunts in Hyesan in the Ryaggang region at a Chinese border river. Smuggling, bribing is as normal as breathing and rationed food. Her step-father, active in the army, and a regular visitor to China dies too young. The Great Famine that hit the best world in the country in the 90s opens the eyes of the still young girl. Despite the education, youth movements, secret agents and social control, she wants to escape this regime.Pretending a family visit she crosses the river and enters China without identification or money. Years of an emotional roller coaster ride, sparkles of hope, greater disasters, disappointments and bad feelings follow. The police, secret service, corrupt middlemen, wrong friends and terrible mistakes mark Lee's story. As a reader you want to know what's next, longing for a happy end. Does China or South Korea bring that? Will a forced marriage in China solve problems? Or a voluntary relationship with Kim from Seoul's Gangnam District be the final episod? Seven changes of identity are necessary to settle in freedom, until she decides to help her mother and half-brother flee North Korea as well. How chilling is the conditioned freedom. How important are your familiy ties, identity, ethnic background, name and place you consider home!The Girl with Seven Names is different from other stories of North Korean defectors. No prison camp escape, a total ignorance of Christians. This unique story is impressive!
    • 4/5
      The novel was absolutely amazing. The only reason I am rating it 4 stars, is because the narrator, Josie Dunn, could have done just a little bit better in my opinion. As many Korean names are mentioned, I think she should have worked harder to get the pronounciations right.
    • 5/5
      What an amazing and insightful story highly recommend!

      She is a brave and courageous and clearly exceedingly intelligent woman!
    • 5/5
      Outstanding! I have no doubt that it will eventually be made into a movie. I can only hope that the producers of the movie will do the book justice.
    • 5/5
      Griping and engrossing read. Inspiring life story of a young woman full of adventure.
    • 5/5
      What an amazing story and incredible journey! I looked forward to this book every evening and could not put it down and I am so pleased that it culminated into a beautiful epilogue.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful and suspenseful story. What an extraordinary history rich in details of politics, human interest and even geography! Well read as well!
    • 3/5
      It was hard to get into. The writing style wasn't the best. The story was okay. I liked it by the middle of the book. I didn't care for the ending.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I had found another book by a North Korean defector on a freebie list and reading the reviews of that one, this came up as being a much better book - more engaging and interesting.

      I have to admit I was swept up into the story of Hyeonseo Lee's life - hence why I finished it in one day and was up late doing so.

      Thank you for sharing your story with us.
    • 5/5
      The author was born and grew up in North Korea. She escaped to China, just a river crossing away, when she was seventeen. I'm not sure that "escaped" is the right word to use although ultimately that was the result. Although she crossed during the night into China, she thought she would go back to her mother and brother in a few days. It was only after she had been in China where she stayed with a business associate of her mother's, that she began to understand it was impossible for her to return without reprisals for everyone in her family. Being in China was the beginning of her understanding that the world was not as she had been taught. Reading the account of her life over the next decade is compelling, harrowing and quite often frightening. One of the values of Lee's book is that for readers who live free, it makes the way people living in a totalitarian regime that creates false history and world events is similarly compelling, harrowing and quite often frightening.
    • 5/5
      A memoir more like a thriller than most memoirs. It's a story of her escape not only from North Korea but from her indoctrination as a schoolgirl - North Korea is the best country in the world and the Kim despots are like gods. At 17 she hatched a plan to escape across the river from her village to China, and there was horrified to come to realize that she had been brainwashed. She was able to pass as Korean-Chinese by learning Chinese, amazingly, by watching TV. Eventually she crossed to South Korea using a complicated plan she devised, and then managed to bring her mother and brother there.She is not only courageous but she must be brilliant, becoming fluent not only in Mandarin but in English - so much so that this book is beautifully written. Hard to put down.
    • 4/5
      Interesting and intriguing memoir of a North Korean defector. She also has done a TED talk about her experiences.Included many insights of life in North Korea and difficulties faced by those who want to defect.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this book immensely. I had never read a book about life in North Korea and this one did not disappoint. The perseverance of Hyeonseo is truly admirable. I followed along her adventures till the very end. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      Another story of North Korea which is adding to information about this little known country. The story is quite extraordinary. She kind of just slipped away. A young girl she already was strong and aware and was able to survive. Read for bookclub, March 2021.
    • 5/5
      I feel that everyone needs to read Hyeonseo Lee's story and be more informed about what is happening in North Korea. Those poor people...there are just no words. I'm just so thankful that she managed to escape, to get her family out and is brave enough to tell her story to the world.
    • 4/5
      Interesting book about North Korea.
    • 4/5
      This is a fascinating true story of how 17 year old Hysonseo Lee defects from North Korea in the 1990s. For twelve years Lee struggles to hide her identity for fear that she will be deported back to North Korea. Her journey takes her to China and eventually to South Korea. Ultimately, after facing tremendous challenges and hardships, Lee is able to get her brother and mother out of North Korea and is reunited with them in South Korea.