American Hagwon

‘A profoundly generous and humane novel about duty, family, and the dream of a better life’ DOUGLAS STUART

‘Extraordinary … Min Jin Lee has constructed a world so rich and intricate that you forget you're reading’ TARA WESTOVER

‘Magnificent … a work of grace and beauty’ MATTHEW DESMOND

Min Jin Lee, the acclaimed author of the major global bestseller Pachinko, returns with a breathtaking contemporary epic that follows one family as they reckon with ambition and moderation, love and loyalty, 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?

In American Hagwon, Min Jin Lee has crafted a transcendent, panoramic novel of profound emotional richness, where the smallest of gestures can have enormous repercussions. This is the most ambitious and extraordinary work yet by one of our greatest novelists.

Reviews

Praise for American Hagwon:

‘With her gift for wonderfully empathetic storytelling, this is a profoundly generous and humane novel about duty, family, and the dream of a better life … I was fully absorbed by the fates of the Koh family and, as the novel worked its cumulative magic, deeply moved by this masterful tale of sacrifice, familial devotion and, ultimately, acceptance’ Douglas Stuart, author of John of John

‘A novel of extraordinary ambition. Min Jin Lee has constructed a world so rich and intricate that you forget you're reading … A stunning achievement’ Tara Westover, author of Educated

‘Magnificent – a deep education from a master storyteller … American Hagwon is among the very best novels of immigration. A work of grace and beauty that unspools one thread at a time, much like life itself’ Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted