[Press Release] Korea's Prestigious Daesan Literary Award Winner - Cho Haejin's SIMPLE HEART (Slated to Publish February 26)

Praise for Cho Haejin (I Met Loh Kiwan): 

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"A must-read for anyone interested in the exciting world of contemporary Korean literature".
-Theodore Hughes, Columbia University

"Cho has created an idealized vision of the North Korean refugee around whom is organized a quest for truth and authenticity in human relations. Her work is both captivating and moving".
-Janet Poole, University of Toronto

***Winner of Korea's Daesan Literary Award*** 

In Cho Haejin's SIMPLE HEART: A Novel (Other Press Trade Paperback; On Sale: 2/3/26), a Korean writer's pregnancy raises questions about her own childhood abandonment. In this story of motherhood and searching for one's roots, Cho offers a penetrating exploration of dual identities. The author of thirteen previous novels, including I Met Loh Kiwan, which was adapted into a feature film and released on Netflix in 2024 as "My Name Is Loh Kiwan", Cho is known for her ability to pen novels that unearth forgotten history and grant insight to the contemporary issues of our time, spanning war, refugees, and labor. After reading Jane Jung Trinka's The Language of Blood, Cho became interested in the history of adoption in Korea. Particularly how, following the Korean War, which left the country in extreme poverty, South Korea began sending orphans abroad for adoption, often without their biological mothers' consent. With SIMPLE HEART, Cho navigates this history with tender clarity, yet again managing to wield dignified characters who, even within horrific environments and history, retain the sense of living for one another and self-embodied humanity. 

Pregnant with the child of her ex-boyfriend, Nana receives a request from a Korean filmmaker who wishes to make a documentary about her life. Following a sudden compulsion to learn more about her own roots, she heads to Seoul as she prepares to bring a new life into the world. There, through unexpected encounters, the dark threads of her memory gradually begin to unravel.

While shining a necessary light on this specific history of international adoption and the historic US military presence in Korea, SIMPLE HEART delves into profound questions about identity and belonging, with a focus on family connections and motherhood that recalls Kyung-Sook Shin's Please Look After Mother. I hope to stay in touch with you about it.

You can preorder the book on Amazon

About the Author: Cho Haejin is the recipient of several literary awards, including the Shin Dong-yup Prize for Literature, the Yi Sang Literary Award, and the Hyeongpyeong Literary Prize. Her novels are celebrated for bearing witness to the lives of those on the margins of Korean society: people with disabilities, foreigners, North Korean defectors, and overseas adoptees. Cho's novel I Met Loh Kiwan was adapted into a feature film and released on Netflix in 2024. She won Korea's prestigious Daesan Literary Award for Simple Heart.

About the Translator: Jamie Chang is an award-winning literary translator. Her translation of Cho Nam-joo's Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 was long listed for the 2020 National Book Award for Translated Literature. She is the recipient of the Daesan Foundation Translation Grant and a three-time recipient of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea Grant. She lives in Ontario, Canada.