Unveiling Secrets Across Borders: A North Korean Daughter’s Heartbreaking Journey in "The Boat Not Taken"
While it is clear that this devoted mother does all in her power to care for and protect her daughter, as refugees, their life after fleeing North Korea is one of poverty, privation, risk, and danger for a single woman—without the protection of a husband and his family, in a culture and time where women are defined and seen in terms of their relationships.
When the narrator is five, her mother is unable to care for her. She is left at an orphanage. Memories of this lonely, frightening time are acute and vividly brought to life. “In the darkness, I heard a girl singing and the big girl next to me breathing through her nose. I held my soft bundle to my chest and lay on my left side, the same position I had slept in with my mother. I hadn’t suckled her breast for a year now but we still slept with her right arm underneath my head, which faced her right breast, and my right hand pressed on her other breast. I clutched the bag tighter.”
