Min Jin Lee

Min Jin Lee’s debut novel, Free Food for Millionaires, was one of the “Top 10 Novels of the Year” for the Times(London), NPR’s Fresh Air, and USA Today. Her short fiction has been featured on NPR’s Selected Shorts. Her writings have appeared in Condé Nast Traveler, Times (London), Vogue, Travel + Leisure, Wall Street Journal, New York Times Magazine, and Food & Wine. Her essays and literary criticism have been anthologized widely. She served as a columnist for Chosun Ilbo, the leading paper of South Korea. She lives in New York City with her family. For more information, please visit her website at www.minjinlee.com, or follow her on Twitter @minjinlee11.

February Fiction: Excerpt from PACHINKO by Min Jin Lee

Min Jin Lee - February 8, 2017

For February, we have the opening from Pachinko, Min Jin Lee's new intergenerational novel. Set over several decades, this sweeping book focuses on the lives of Koreans living in Japan during and after the Japanese occupation, and their efforts to find their place in a society that doesn't welcome them. Heartbreaking yet laced with hope, Pachinko doesn't flinch from the difficult realities Korean people faced at that time. Given recent events, Lee's book offers an interesting counterpoint to our American conversation on discrimination, migration, and survival.