In conversation with Bret Anthony Johnston, Director, Michener Center for Writers

Min Jin Lee returns with American Hagwon, a breathtaking panoramic epic that reckons with ambition, loyalty, 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. Desperately striving to regain their footing, they leave Seoul and struggle to adjust to a new life in Southern California, where their experience and education mean little. Setting their sights on whatever it takes to provide for their children’s futures, the Kohs have faith that education will lead the next generation to success and security.

Min Jin Lee is the author of the novels Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko, a finalist for the National Book Award and named a New York Times “100 Best Books of the Century.” She currently serves as the New York State Author Laureate and is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.

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