A novel by Irene Lee

What Was Carried,
What Was Lost

The Last Ship South

When you can only carry so much, what do you choose to hold on to?

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About the Book

Based on a true story

While the Korean War rages, twelve-year-old Shin Hwajae is forced to flee North Korea after a violent encounter with soldiers, leaving her family fractured and her future uncertain. Separated from her father and brother, she must navigate a perilous journey across islands and open sea with the family members she has left, hoping to reunite and desperate to survive.

Based on the true story of Irene's grandmother's escape, What Was Carried, What Was Lost is a memoir of loss, sacrifice, and the cost of survival.

War Memoir Creative Nonfiction Korean Literature Coming of Age
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Author's Note

What Was Carried, What Was Lost is based on the true story of my grandmother, Shin Hwajae, who escaped North Korea during the Korean War. The events, experiences, and losses recorded in these pages are real, told to me across many years of conversation.

Where memory could not reach the specifics, I have reconstructed them as faithfully as I could, guided by what I know of who these people were and what they endured. All dialogue and internal thought are my own rendering of events that were real.

This is my grandmother's story. I have only tried to give it the shape it deserves.

— Irene Lee
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The Story

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The Author

About Irene Lee

Irene Lee is a seventeen-year-old writer based in New York City. She has been writing since childhood, drawn to the styles of many writers she admires across different genres.

What Was Carried, What Was Lost began during one of her visits to her grandmother in South Korea, where she had always listened to the story of her escape from North Korea. At sixteen, Irene decided that the story deserved to be a book, not only to honor her grandmother, but to expand the voices of North Korean defectors whose experiences rarely reach the page. This is her first book.

When she is not writing, Irene has a deep appreciation and passion for the performing arts, and is an oboist at Juilliard Pre-College.