A decade in the making, American Hagwon is the long awaited new contemporary epic novel of family and education from Min Jin Lee. With thanks to Jack @jwbakerbooks for the review and Fourth Estate for the early copy.
Following the Koh family as they navigate life as a middle-class Korean family in the ’90s and ’00s, American Hagwon is a stunning piece of writing that comes to life in a way I was not ready for.
Starting in 1992 as the family of five moves back to Seoul, we join them in the middle of the first of many upheavals. We then follow them through the choices they make and the lives they touch until 2007. These pages breathe so much life into this family that you will likely find yourself cheering for their successes and tearing up at their tragedies. At least, that’s what happened to me.
The supporting cast in this book is one of its greatest triumphs; each person the Koh family interacts with is fully formed and clearly has a life of their own. Every individual could be the main character in their own story, and we see how even the briefest interactions cause echoes that reverberate years later in the Kohs’ lives.
While I cannot personally speak to the accuracy of the cultural themes and challenges present in the book, it all feels remarkably real. The truth in the portrayal of sibling dynamics, love, and grief transcends cultural specificity, giving me the confidence to say that the more specifically Korean elements must be just as authentic.
Regarding the writing itself, it took me a moment to become accustomed to Min Jin Lee’s style. For those of you who decide to pick it up, I would say it is well worth sticking with if you have a similar initial experience. Having just finished it, I could easily read another 300 pages and would bite your hand off to get them if offered. I’m quite sure I’ll read it again in the future, and the copy of Pachinko sitting on my TBR shelf is unlikely to stay there for much longer.
About the Book
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.
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.’ Lee lives in New York with her family.
Purchase the Book
This book can be purchased in our store either on its own or in a cosy Book Box. The Independent Bookshop Exclusive Edition is limited and is essential to pre order to avoid missing out.
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