American Hagwon

‘Profoundly generous and humane’ DOUGLAS STUART

‘Engrossing … brilliantly imagined’ COLM TÓIBÍN

‘Breathtaking … I adored it’ ELIF SHAFAK

‘A masterful family saga’ HARPER'S BAZAAR

Min Jin Lee, the acclaimed author of Pachinko, returns with a breathtaking contemporary epic that follows one family as they reckon with personal dreams and familial duty.

John and Helen Koh and their three children – Bo, DH and Mido – are building new lives in Korea when they find their worlds upended, first by a terrible betrayal and then by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Striving to regain their footing, the Kohs set out to do whatever it takes to provide for their children’s futures.

They leave Seoul for Sydney and eventually settle in California, where new opportunities open for the Koh children, as the parents, strangers in a strange land, adjust to a difficult existence in which their qualifications mean little. Their way forward is lit by the faith that education will lead the next generation to the success and security that have eluded their parents.

The Kohs, their friends, relatives and even their foes move in and out of each other’s lives as they navigate love, work, fortune and fulfilment across the years. But with each new sacrifice and fresh horizon, larger questions begin to open up before them: what are we willing to give up to secure the happiness of the ones we love? What is the purpose of education? And what is truly important for a good life?

American Hagwon is the most ambitious and extraordinary work yet by one of our greatest novelists.

A most anticipated book of the year in Guardian, New York Times, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Independent, and more.

‘A sweeping, stirring, epic’ iPAPER

‘Engrossing … Brilliantly imagined’ COLM TÓIBÍN, author of Long Island

‘If your faith in either humanity or storytelling has dimmed, this will make it blaze again’ KAMILA SHAMSIE, author of Best of Friends

‘Incredibly beautiful … an absolute joy that you will take with you for the rest of your life’ JOANNA CANNON, author of An Unlikely Visitor

‘A world so rich and intricate that you forget you're reading’ TARA WESTOVER, author of Educated

‘Much-anticipated … a big book tackling big themes about what we are prepared to sacrifice to provide for our loved ones and at what personal cost’ SERVICE95

About the author

Min Jin Lee is the author of the internationally bestselling novels Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, a runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and selected as one of the New York Times ‘100 Best Books of the Century.’ She is the recipient of many awards, including the Fitzgerald Prize for Literary Excellence 2024, the Manhae Grand Prize for Literature, the Bucheon Diaspora Literary Award and the Samsung Happiness for Tomorrow Award for Creativity from South Korea. She is the New York State Author Laureate (2025-2027) and an inductee of the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame and the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. She has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. Lee lives in New York with her family.