HEART AND SEOUL

A 25-year-old woman travels to Seoul to find her birthparents.

Hara Wilson has struggled with feeling like an outsider her entire life. As a baby, she was abandoned in Seoul and eventually adopted by a White American couple in Iowa. Hara was often the target of racism during her childhood and coped by refusing to learn anything about her homeland. The novel opens with Hara at her father’s funeral, where she overhears whispers that her race and her adoptive status mean she doesn’t count as his “real child.” Upset at the slight, Hara is surprised to find herself longing to visit Korea, hoping the information she gleaned from a DNA test will help her locate her birthparents. The first person Hara meets upon her arrival in Seoul is Choi Yujun, an attractive and friendly man who helps her find a sublet apartment. As she searches for her birthparents with the help of friends and roommates, Hara gains a new understanding of her own identity and what it means to belong. When Hara keeps bumping into Yujun, he suggests that fate might be bringing them together. Frederick’s novel is a journey of self-discovery for Hara; however, the last third abruptly shifts to betrayal, family secrets, and other dramatic situations. The soapy ending feels out of sync with the emotional, reflective tone that carries most of the book. And although this is billed as a romance, readers should know Hara’s relationship with Yujun does not have a happily-ever-after or happy-for-now ending.

Thorough exploration of the complicated emotional impact of transracial adoption.