26 Feb 2027, 7:30pm
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75mins, no interval
Celebrate the launch of Adelaide Writers’ Week with a special event with acclaimed writer Min Jin Lee, who will discuss her highly anticipated new novel American Hagwon, the follow-up to her global bestseller Pachinko.
Set against the backdrop of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the novel centres on the Koh family as its members reckon with personal dreams and inherited duty. As the world shifts around them, profound questions emerge: What are we willing to sacrifice for the people we love? What does it mean to live a good life?
With her characteristic compassion and insight, Lee examines what happens when the promise of a better life collides with the overwhelming pressure of expectation.
Lee speaks to Michael Williams.
Min Jin Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea, and immigrated with her family to Queens, New York, at the age of seven. After studying history at Yale University and law at Georgetown University, she practised law before turning to writing full time. Her debut novel, Free Food for Millionaires (2007), was an international bestseller and named among the year's best books by numerous publications. Her second novel, Pachinko, became a global literary phenomenon. Following four generations of a Korean family living in Japan, it was a finalist for the National Book Award, named one of The New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2017 and, in 2024, one of its 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.
Michael Williams is the editor of The Monthly. He was previously artistic director of Sydney Writers’ Festival. He spent a decade at The Wheeler Centre in Melbourne as its founding head of programming and then as its director. A regular host and interviewer for literary and ideas events around Australia, his background is in publishing and broadcasting.
