I’m so grateful for my friends who told me to keep going: Jeanette Mancine, Melissa K., Meljean Brook, Jessica Clare, Robin Harders, Syreeta Jennings, Lea Robinson.

Extra special thanks go to Christina Hobbs, who would send me a photo of my favorite band member as a reward and incentive. I can’t wait to go to concerts again and hold your hand during our favorite parts. May we always get sound check! Or at least once a tour.

Elyssa Patrick read this story in parts and gave me immeasurably good feedback. I’ll always treasure your friendship.

Nicole, author assistant extraordinaire, I often wonder if I would still be writing if not for you. Thank you for all the work you do.

Diane Park, my dear Korean friend, thank you for reading this, helping with romanization of our beautiful language, and assisting in details about the beautiful city of Seoul. Thank you for all the other things you do. You’re a precious human. All errors are mine.

My endless thanks go out to Cindy Hwang, my editor, who took a chance on this story and me. Thank you to Steve Axelrod for guiding this project into Cindy’s hands.

No book makes it to the market without the enormous help of a publishing team. Thank you to Angela Kim, Fareeda Bullert, Jessica Brock, and everyone else at Berkley/Penguin Random House.

To all the readers, bookstagrammers, Facebook groups, YouTubers; people who interact with me on Twitter, who send me messages on Instagram, who follow me on Facebook; people who leave reviews on B&N, Amazon, Goodreads: Thank you for the time and effort you put into the reading community.

Finally, to my mother who chose me, I love you. To the mother who gave me up, I love you, too. To my brothers and sister, thank you for being part of my life. To my husband and my daughter, you are the most important beings in my life. Thank you for loving and supporting me.

To you who reads this book and finds comfort, I love you and I’m rooting for you.

READERS GUIDE

HEART

AND SEOUL

Jen Frederick

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Is Hara’s othering of herself the result of her wanting to fit in or the result of her trying to avoid more exposure to the racism in the world where she lived?

2. Which character did you relate to the most?

3. Who changes the most over the course of the story?

4. Did you empathize more with one mother than the other?

5. Did you have a new perspective on adoptees from this book?

6. Did you learn things about Korea that you hadn’t known before?

JEN FREDERICK is a Korean adoptee living in the Midwest with her husband, daughter, and rambunctious dog. Under the psuedonym Erin Watt, Frederick has cowritten two #1 New York Times bestselling novels.