The Girl with Seven Names: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

Apparently, a group of officers from the Military Security Command, a form of secret police concerned only with the military, were waiting for Father when he crossed the Friendship Bridge back into North Korea. Hyeonseo and her family hear nothing of Father’s whereabouts for 10 days and are told only that an investigation is ongoing into his business conduct. During this time, Mother is tearful and sad, and she tells Hyeonseo a story about Aunt Old and her children, which Hyeonseo has never heard before.

In the late 1960s, Aunt Old married a Korean-Chinese man against Grandmother’s wishes and had three children. Her husband soon grew tired of North Korea and wanted to go back to China, but Aunt Old refused. He returned alone, but was apprehended at the border and sent to a prison camp without a trial. Grandmother made arrangements for Aunt Old to get a divorce and put the three children up for adoption—the only way to save the family’s songbun after a spouse is imprisoned. No one in North Korea talks openly about the gulags, which are different from the collective farms not far from Hyesan. 

Hyeonseo can feel her resentment for her father soften, and two weeks later, they are told that he has been released to a hospital in Hyesan. Mother goes to visit him and is shocked by his appearance. He is skinny and looks old, but he tries to ease their fears. The investigation is still ongoing, and he has been accused of bribery and abuse of position. Father slips into a deep depression—an illness that is not considered legitimate in North Korea—and is sent back to the hospital in Hyesan. Hyeonseo and Min-ho are sent to stay with Uncle Cinema, who comes home one day and tells them their father has died.

Father’s death makes Hyeonseo realize what a mistake she has made in treating him so badly. He raised her like his own child, and she considered herself his child. She loved him, and now he is gone. The hospital death certificate claims Father overdosed on Valium, committing suicide—which is considered the ultimate form of defection in North Korea and is detrimental to a family’s songbun. Mother manages to bribe the hospital staff and gets Father’s death certificate reclassified to reflect death by heart attack. In the following weeks, Hyeonseo grows closer with Min-ho, and she begins to think that perhaps their new house really is cursed.