American Hagwon

《美國國家圖書獎》決選、《紐約時報》暢銷書《柏青哥》作者強勢回歸，帶來一部令人屏息的現代史詩巨作：這部傑作兼具宏大格局與細膩情感，深思野心與克制、慾望與忠誠、個人夢想與家庭責任之間的拉扯與考量。

在學校與教堂、飯店房間與美甲沙龍、律師事務所與炸魚店；在狹窄昏暗的公寓與奢華的封閉式社區中，《美式補習班》裡的男人、女人與孩子們，在這個似乎一年比一年更加嚴苛的世界裡，掙扎著尋找滿足感與生命的意義。

John Koh 和 Helen Koh 原本在韓國過著安穩的中產階級生活，與三個孩子——Bo、DH 和 Mido——組成一個幸福的家庭。然而，John 最要好的老友突然背叛，以及接踵而來的 1997 年亞洲金融危機，徹底顛覆了他們原本的人生。

為了重新站穩腳步，他們離開首爾前往雪梨，最終定居於南加州。對孩子們而言，新的世界開啟了嶄新的機會；但對身處異鄉的父母來說，卻必須適應一種全新的生活——過去累積的經驗與教育在這裡幾乎毫無用武之地。他們窮盡一切，將目光投向任何能為孩子們的未來提供保障的方法。Koh 一家、他們的朋友、親戚，甚至敵人，不斷在彼此的人生中進進出出；他們各自走上不同的人生道路，始終懷抱著一個近乎吞噬一切的信念：教育將帶領下一代走向成功與安穩。

在《美式補習班》中，李珉貞打造出一部令人難忘、視野遼闊的全景式小說。在這裡，最微小的舉動也可能產生巨大的後果；家庭與記憶的羈絆或許會扭曲、磨損，卻極少真正斷裂；而那種為了所愛之人、甚至為了陌生人而甘願犧牲自己的意志，也成了一種祈禱。

The National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Pachinko returns with a breathtaking contemporary epic: a masterpiece by turns sweeping and intimate, that reckons with ambition and moderation, lust and loyalty, personal dreams and familial duty.

Min Jin Lee brings grand ambition, fierce heart, and the tenderest hope to a novel I didn't want to end.” ―Roxane Gay, bestselling author of Bad Feminist and Hunger

In schools and churches, hotel rooms and nail salons, law firms and fried-fish shops; in cramped, dingy apartments and luxury, gated communities, the men, women, and children in American Hagwon struggle to find satisfaction and meaning in a world that seems to grow less forgiving with each passing year. Once comfortably middle class in Korea, John and Helen Koh and their three children―Bo, DH, and Mido―find their lives upended, first by a shocking betrayal by John’s oldest friend, then by the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

Desperately striving to regain their footing, they leave Seoul for Sydney and eventually settle in Southern California―where new vistas of opportunity open up for the children as their parents, strangers in a strange land, must adjust to a new life in which their experience and education mean little, and they set their sights on whatever it takes to provide for their children’s futures. The Kohs, their friends, relatives, and even their foes move in and out of each other’s lives as they navigate new courses across the years, always nursing the almost all-consuming faith that education will lead the next generation to success and security.

In American Hagwon, Min Jin Lee has crafted an unforgettable, panoramic novel where the smallest of gestures can have enormous repercussions, where the bonds of family and of memory twist and fray but rarely break, and where willful self-sacrifice―for the benefit of loved ones and even strangers―is a kind of prayer.

An immersive, engrossing novel ... this is panorama told in brilliant detail.”―Colm Tóibín, bestselling author ofLong IslandandBrooklyn