A promising music student in North Korea, Chungsim, the heroine, is kidnapped by human traffickers during her visit to an aunt who lives near the North Korean-Chinese border. After being sold off and subjected to sexual exploitation and unspeakable suffering in an ethnic Korean village in China, she narrowly escapes and works as a masseuse in a small border town. When the Chinese police cracks down on illegal migrant workers, however, the protagonist must flee for her life once more. Chungsim finally manages to settle down in South Korea after sacrificing all of her money to a South Korean broker and crossing the treacherous Chinese-Mongolian border, only to face a cruel reality instead of happiness. Her final act, which is to change her mind after deciding to throw away a pot of wilting rambler roses, signifies her desperate attempt at hope.
Based on his years of efforts at improving North-South Korean relations, the author vividly depicts, through the harrowing wanderings of a young girl, the issue of the human rights of North Korean escapees and the reality of illegal migrant labor worldwide. Readers will be deeply moved by the tragic tale, which is accentuated all the more by the dry and matter-of-fact style.
Changbi Books
