From The Archives: Before ‘American Hagwon’, Min Jin Lee On ‘Pachinko’

Following the much-anticipated release of Min Jin Lee’s new novel, American Hagwon, we revisit Dua’s July 2023 Book Club conversation with the author about Pachinko, which follows four generations of a Korean family as they navigate identity, displacement and belonging in Japan.

At the heart of Pachinko is a question about the people history leaves behind. Through the immigrant experience, life as an outsider, motherhood, faith and the place of women in a patriarchal society, Lee examines the forces that shape a life, and the resilience it takes to find a place in the world. Dua and Min discuss the years of research behind the book and the craft of writing characters who are complex, flawed and deeply human.

The conversation also turns to how literature widens our understanding of the world, why stories that might otherwise go unheard deserve preserving, and what it means to see ourselves – and one another – reflected on the page.

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