American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee

Some stories arrive like the tide—quiet at first, then all at once, pulling you in until you’ve lost track of the hours. This is one of them.

From the National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Pachinko comes a sweeping contemporary epic that reckons with ambition and sacrifice, personal dreams and familial duty.

Once comfortably middle class in Korea, John and Helen Koh and their three children find their lives upended—first by a shocking betrayal, then by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. From Seoul to Sydney and finally Southern California, the Kohs must build a new life in a world where their hard-earned experience means little, and where they’ll do whatever it takes to secure their children’s futures.

It’s a novel about the smallest gestures with the largest consequences. About the bonds of family and memory that twist and fray, but rarely break. About the almost all-consuming faith that education will carry the next generation toward something better.

“Min Jin Lee brings grand ambition, fierce heart, and the tenderest hope to a novel I didn’t want to end.” —Roxane Gay, bestselling author of Bad Feminist and Hunger

“An immersive, engrossing novel… this is panorama told in brilliant detail.” —Colm Tóibín, bestselling author of Brooklyn and Long Island

This is the kind of book you’ll want to linger over on a rainy afternoon, salt air drifting through the window, the world outside falling away. A panoramic, unforgettable read.

Stop by and pick up your copy—we’d love to send it home with you.

Additional information