NEW YORK TIMes bestseller
REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK
Praise & Early Reviews
“Nancy Jooyoun Kim’s debut carefully illuminates the two sides of the silence between a Korean immigrant mother and her Korean American daughter, a silence only too familiar to many of us—and emerges with a stunningly powerful and original novel about social class, immigration and family. Kim is a brilliant new voice in American fiction.” — Alexander Chee, bestselling author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
"In The Last Story of Mina Lee, Nancy Jooyoun Kim explores with tenderness and grace the intricate web of guilt, love and secrecy that entangles a mother and daughter. Powerful and poignant, this riveting novel speaks to the complexities of the immigration experience while keeping the reader enthralled by the mystery of the mother's suspicious death." — Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee
“Suspenseful and deeply felt, The Last Story of Mina Lee begins when Margot Lee discovers her mother's death before reeling back in time to explore the secrets that divided Mina and Margot—as well as those that bound them together. Nancy Jooyoun Kim's debut artfully explores a diverse range of immigrant experiences, the meaning of family and home, and the nature of language—how it can be an ocean that divides, or a bridge that connects. In the process, The Last Story of Mina Lee raises questions about the reality of the American dream and illuminates stories that often go untold, in life as well as fiction.” — Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists
“The Last Story of Mina Lee is a fierce, gripping call to love and memory. Nancy Jooyoun Kim has written a beautiful debut novel that is unafraid to delve into the scary, deeply vulnerable places of our hearts. It's a riveting dance between mother and daughter, moving fluidly back and forth through time, documenting the quiet traumas that can divide generations. Tremendously readable, The Last Story of Mina Lee is a real page-turner and Nancy Jooyoun Kim is a knockout.” — Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things
“Haunting and heartbreaking, troubled threads between a mother and daughter blend together in a delicate and rich weave… With both sadness and beauty, [Kim] describes grief, regret, loss, and the feeling of being left behind. Fans of Amy Tan and Kristin Hannah will love Kim's brilliant debut.” — Booklist, STARRED review
“Nancy Jooyoun Kim’s The Last Story of Mina Lee reckons with the historical trauma of Korean women and the women of the Korean diaspora. Kim negotiates the boundaries of language, geography, and identity, creating a work that is dynamic and piercing. She uses the language inherited by a deep collective sorrow, or han, and makes possible an understanding between mothers and daughters that have crossed the transpacific divide, together and yet alone. Kim confronts the meaning of ‘one life in the wreckage’ of Korean women’s bodies. The Last Story of Mina Lee is a glimpse of the Korean American presence, from Seoul to Los Angeles, critical to American history and literature.” — E. J. Koh, author of The Magical Language of Others and A Lesser Love
“The American nightmare is what the American dream is predicated on but much harder to capture. And yet in The Last Story of Mina Lee Nancy Jooyoun Kim has done it while highlighting all the nuances that could get lost in translation, in particular our ways of creating joy, pleasure, friendship and desire within it. This is a book of mystery, of moments of horror, of gasping surprises, of exquisite compassion and tenderness. Kim captures how hard we try to communicate with each other, how often we fail, but also—but also—the possibility that we might reach something close to connection.” — Corinne Manning, author of We Had No Rules
"Nancy Jooyoun Kim writes with brilliant exactitude about the anxious topographies of being a mother and a daughter, and the choices that lead to migration. The Last Story of Mina Lee is a confident and gripping account of where families bury secrets and what happens when you dig." — Ingrid Rojas Contreras, bestselling author of Fruit of the Drunken Tree
“In her stunning debut, Nancy Jooyoun Kim weaves together two poignant story lines: Mina Lee, an immigrant flees tragedy in Korea for a new start in Southern California. When she mysteriously dies, her American-born daughter, Margot, seeks out the truth of what happened. Gripping and gritty, The Last Story of Mina Lee is a story of their yearning, their struggle, and the enduring mystery of family. Unforgettable.” — Vanessa Hua, bestselling author of A River of Stars and Deceit and Other Possibilities
“Was Mina Lee’s death really an accident? That’s what her daughter, Margot, sets out to determine when she begins digging around her mother’s life. Ultimately, she ends up uncovering not just her mother’s death, but Mina herself: the lives she lost, the love she had, the sacrifices she made as a poor, undocumented immigrant. Shifting between Mina and Margot’s storylines, the novel reveals the fissures that divide a mother and daughter born into different countries, different languages, different minds. A suspenseful, and unflinching novel, The Last Story of Mina Lee had me glued to the page until its surprising and poignant end.” — Amy Meyerson, bestselling author of The Bookshop of Yesterdays and The Imperfects