Features

Min Jin Lee, author of American Hagwon

The men, women and children in AMERICAN HAGWON struggle to find satisfaction and meaning in a world that seems to grow less forgiving with each passing year. Once comfortably middle class in Korea, John and Helen Koh and their three children find their lives upended --- first by a shocking betrayal by John’s oldest friend, then by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Desperately striving to regain their footing, they leave Seoul for Sydney and eventually settle in Southern California --- where new vistas of opportunity open up for the children as their parents, strangers in a strange land, must adjust to a new life in which their experience and education mean little, and they set their sights on whatever it takes to provide for their children’s futures.

Read more »

American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee

October 2026

Min Jin Lee's last book, PACHINKO, came out in 2017, which in many ways feels like a lifetime ago. So I assumed that whatever she wrote next would both feel and be big. I am not talking about the page count, but rather the storyline, the complexity of the characters, and the messaging that she wanted to share.

The focus in AMERICAN HAGWON is on education, which starts young. It is not just about learning, but also about achievement. Mediocrity is unacceptable. Good is unacceptable. Very good is unacceptable. There is a quest for the promised land --- that of a select group of Ivy League colleges that have been noted as the only way that success will be achieved. 

Read more »