THE HEN WHO DREAMED SHE COULD FLY - 마당을 나온 암탉 - by Hwang Sun-mi (황선미)
I recently finished reading "The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly" by Hwang Sun-mi. I bought the book at the 10 Magazine Book Club Event with the author last month.
The book is a fast read and keeps you thinking from the first to the last page. I really identified with the Hen and her little duckling (yes, you read that right). I laughed, I hoped, I contemplated, and I cried. It really is a beautiful story about fighting for your dreams and letting go of things beyond our control.
In short, it is a story of a hen who dreams of leaving the coop to live like the other animals on the farm. When she escapes from the coop, she quickly comes face to face with the outside world. A world that is both free and yet full of dangers, she struggles to raise a duckling as her own and protect it from the predators lurking in the wild.
This story really spoke to me because it reminded me of my life in Korea and my family back home. One major theme in the story is the fact that a hen cannot fly while a duck can fly. Having delayed my own inner desire to live abroad for a long time partly due to my closeness with my family, I finally fully realized those dreams in 2011 when I moved to Korea. As with the hen in the story, it took time for my mother to come to terms with having a desire for me to be home yet also understanding my almost innate need to be abroad and "spread my wings".
Upon completion, I recommended the book to my mother and she has downloaded it to her kindle and has started reading it as well. I'm curious to see what her response to the story is and if she comes to the same conclusions as I did while reading the story.