Min Jin Lee on “American Hagwon,” Her First Novel After the Phenomenon of “Pachinko”

Min Jin Lee's new novel American Hagwon extends her decade-spanning, research-intensive diaspora trilogy, with a fourth book, Marshall Plan, already planned.

• New novel arrives: Min Jin Lee's third book, American Hagwon, follows a Korean family from Seoul to Sydney to Southern California chasing education and opportunity, arriving roughly a decade after Pachinko.
• Slow start, long gestation: Lee arrived in Queens at age seven speaking no English, was placed in the "slow" class for two years, quit corporate law in 1995, and took 12 years to write her debut, Free Food for Millionaires.

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