American Hagwon with Min Jin Lee
Tue 20 Oct 2026
7:00pm at St Swithin's Church, The Paragon, Bath, BA1 5LY
Book + Ticket gives you 1 ticket with a copy of the book included, all tickets include 15% off any books purchased on the night, and author talk, and signing.
Other ways to book:
Email books@mrbsemporium.com, call 01225 331155 or pop into the shop at 14-15 John Street, Bath. BA1 2JL.
We are absolutely delighted to welcome Min Jin Lee to Bath to celebrate the publication of her highly anticipated new novel, American Hagwon.
Min Jin Lee, the acclaimed author of Pachinko – a novel so beloved by our booksellers that it now has a place in the Mr B’s Hall of Fame – returns with a breathtaking contemporary epic that follows one family as they reckon with personal dreams and familial duty. As the novel weaves between Seoul, Sydney and California, the family must confront what is truly important for a good life, and just how much they are willing to sacrifice to obtain it. American Hagwon is the most ambitious and extraordinary work yet by one of our greatest novelists.
Min Jin Lee will be in conversation with Tahmima Anam, prize-winning author of A Golden Age, The Good Muslim, and most recently Uprising.
Can’t make it to the event? Order a signed and dedicated copy here.
About the book:
John and Helen Koh and their three children – Bo, DH and Mido – are building new lives in Korea when they find their worlds upended, first by a terrible betrayal and then by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Striving to regain their footing, the Kohs set out to do whatever it takes to provide for their children’s futures.
They leave Seoul for Sydney and eventually settle in California, where new opportunities open for the Koh children, as the parents, strangers in a strange land, adjust to a difficult existence in which their qualifications mean little. Their way forward is lit by the faith that education will lead the next generation to the success and security that have eluded their parents.
The Kohs, their friends, relatives and even their foes move in and out of each other’s lives as they navigate love, work, fortune and fulfilment across the years. But with each new sacrifice and fresh horizon, larger questions begin to open up before them: what are we willing to give up to secure the happiness of the ones we love? What is the purpose of education? And what is truly important for a good life?
‘Profoundly generous and humane’ DOUGLAS STUART
‘Engrossing … brilliantly imagined’ COLM TÓIBÍN
‘Enchanting … I adored it’ ELIF SHAFAK
‘Extraordinary’ TARA WESTOVER
About the authors:
Min Jin Lee is the author of the internationally bestselling novels Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, a runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and selected as one of the New York Times ‘100 Best Books of the Century.’ She is the recipient of many awards, including the Fitzgerald Prize for Literary Excellence 2024, the Manhae Grand Prize for Literature, the Bucheon Diaspora Literary Award and the Samsung Happiness for Tomorrow Award for Creativity from South Korea. She is the New York State Author Laureate (2025-2027) and an inductee of the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame and the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. She has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. Lee lives in New York with her family.
Tahmima Anam is the author of the Bengal trilogy and a recipient of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book and the O. Henry Award. Her short story ‘Garments’ was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. She is a Granta Best of Young British Novelist and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she trained as an anthropologist at Harvard University and now lives in London.